The essentials
India adopted universal adult franchise from the very first election, a bold step for a large, poor and largely non-literate country. The Election Commission, set up in January 1950 with Sukumar Sen as the first Chief Election Commissioner, had to draw constituencies, prepare electoral rolls and train officials. About 17 crore voters were registered for the first election, which was spread over several months from October 1951 to February 1952 and is usually called the 1952 election.
Because many voters could not read, a system of separate ballot boxes for each candidate, each marked with the candidate's party symbol, was used. Later the marked ballot paper replaced this, and much later the electronic voting machine (EVM) came into use.
The Congress won 364 of the 489 Lok Sabha seats in 1952; the Communist Party of India came a distant second. The 1957 and 1962 elections repeated the pattern of a large Congress majority.
Key points
- The first elections were watched closely abroad; many observers doubted that a democracy of this size could function, and the successful election answered these doubts.
- In 1957 the Communist Party of India won the Kerala Assembly election and formed a government led by E.M.S. Namboodiripad, one of the first elected Communist governments in the world.
- In 1959 the Union government dismissed the Kerala government using Article 356, a decision that remained controversial.
- Congress also won most state elections, but it lost in a few places such as Kerala in 1957.
Exam tips
- Remember the sequence: Election Commission (1950), first election (1951–52), Kerala Communist government (1957), its dismissal (1959).
- Link symbol-based voting to the low literacy of the time.
Common mistakes
- Thinking Congress won a majority of votes; its seat share was much higher than its vote share.
- Confusing the first Chief Election Commissioner with the first President or Prime Minister.