NEW DELHI, Oct. 30 -- Teacher organisations have restarted a long-standing campaign to secure voting rights in state legislative council elections for more than 2.5 million primary and upper school teachers, arguing that current laws disenfranchise the foundational tier of the country's public education system.

Under the legal framework established by Article 171 of India's Constitution and the Representation of the People Act of 1950, voting rights in designated "teachers' constituencies" of the six states that have legislative councils -- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka -- are restricted to secondary and higher-education teachers.

Article 171 provides for the composition of state legislative ...