Independent India's first general election

At Independence, many people around the world doubted that democracy could work in a country with so much poverty and so little literacy. The first general election of 1951–52 proved them wrong. It was the largest election in the world at the time.

The first election in numbers

There were about 17.3 crore voters. For 489 Lok Sabha seats, 1,949 candidates from 53 political parties contested. About 1.96 lakh polling stations were set up across the country. The election was held in 68 phases and lasted about four months, from October 1951 to February 1952.

Why was it historic?

From the very first election India gave the vote to every citizen over 21, rich or poor, man or woman. In many Western countries women had won this right only after long struggles. Literacy then was only about 18 per cent, so each candidate had a separate ballot box of a different colour and an election symbol, so that even voters who could not read could vote easily.

Nehru and Sukumar Sen

Nehru saw this election as the foundation of democracy and campaigned across the country. India's first Chief Election Commissioner, Sukumar Sen, made this huge task happen on the ground. Preparing voter lists, training staff and carrying ballot boxes to remote areas were all done without any earlier experience to draw on.

Interesting facts

The first vote was cast on 25 October 1951 in Chini tehsil of Himachal Pradesh, because snow would close the roads there in winter. A separate 27,527 polling booths were set up for women. About 28 lakh women had to be removed from the rolls because, instead of their own names, they had registered as "wife of so-and-so" or "mother of so-and-so".

Results

The Congress won 364 of 489 seats, and Nehru became the country's first Prime Minister elected by the people. The election proved that the ordinary Indian voter could choose their own government, a tradition that continues to this day.