- The Legislative Assembly also known as the Vidhan Sabha is the lower house (in states with bicameral) or the sole house (in unicameral states) of the state legislature in the different States of India.
- The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the Union Territories, Delhi, and Puducherry.
- Members of a Legislative Assembly are direct representatives of the people of the particular state as they are directly elected by an electorate consisting of all citizens above the age of 18 of that state.
- Its maximum size as outlined in the Constitution of India is not more than 500 members and not less than 60 members. However, the size of the Vidhan Sabha can be less than 60 members through an Act of Parliament: such is the case in the states of Goa, Sikkim, Mizoram and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
- In some states Governor may appoint 1 member to represent minorities, e.g. the Anglo-Indian community.

- The upper house in the seven states with a bicameral legislature is called the Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad.
- While most states have unicameral legislature with only legislative assembly, currently, seven states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh have legislative council.
- The Parliament has also cleared formation of Legislative Council Rajasthan and Assam.
- The legislative council is permanent body but 1/3rd of its member retire every 2 years. The members of the council elect a chairman which is called “presiding officer”. The council also elects the Deputy chairman.

Legislative Assembly - 5 years (Same as Lok Sabha).

Legislative Council - it is a permanent body and cannot be dissolved; each Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) serves for a six-year term, with terms staggered so that the terms of one-third of a Council's members expire every two years (Same as Rajya Sabha).

- The qualifications to member of the state Legislature are largely similar to the qualifications to be the members of Parliament.
- A person should be i) a citizen of India ii) not less than 25 years of age to be member of the Legislative Assembly and not less than 30 years as per Article 173 of Indian Constitution to be a member of the Legislative Council.
- No person can become a member of the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council of any state, unless he himself is a voter from any constituency of the state.
- Those who cannot become members of Parliament can also not become members of state Legislature.

- The Legislative Assembly consists of not more than 500 members and not less than 60.
- The biggest state like Uttar Pradesh has 403 members in its Assembly.
- States which have small population and are small in size have a provision for having even lesser number of members in the Legislative Assembly.
- Puducherry has 30 members. Mizoram, Goa have only 40 members each. Sikkim has 32 members.
- All the members of the Legislative Assembly are elected on the basis of adult franchise, and one member is elected from one constituency.
- Just as the President has the power to nominate 2 Anglo-Indians to the Lok Sabha, similarly, the Governor also has the power to nominate 1 member from the Anglo-Indian community as he/she deems fit, if he/she is of the opinion that they are not adequately represented in the Assembly.

- The total number of the Legislative Council should not exceed the 1/3rd of the total number of members of the Legislative assembly, but it should not be less than 40 (Article 171).
- However, J&K is an exception to this where the upper house has strength of 36 only. This is because; J&K assembly is created as per the J&K constitution and Part VI is not applicable to Jammu & Kashmir.