Indian general election, 1952

The Indian general election of 1951–52 elected the first Lok Sabha since India became independent in August 1947. ^{[1] [2] [3]} Until this point, the Indian Constituent Assembly had served as an interim legislature. See the 'Durations' section below to find the time-range associated with these elections.

The Indian National Congress (INC) won a landslide victory, winning 364 of the 489 seats and 45% of the total votes polled. This was over four times as many votes as the second-largest party. Jawaharlal Nehru became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the country. Voter turnout was 45.7%.^[4]

Parties

Before Independent India went to the polls, two former cabinet colleagues of Nehru established separate political parties to challenge the INC's supremacy. While Shyama Prasad Mookerjee went on to found the Jana Sangh in October 1951, Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar revived the Scheduled Castes Federation (which was later named the Republican Party). Other parties which started coming to the forefront included the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Parishad, whose prime mover was Acharya Kripalani; the Socialist Party which had Ram Manohar Lohia and Jay Prakash Narayan's leadership to boast of and the Communist Party of India. However, these smaller parties could not stand against Congress.

Constituencies

The first general elections, which were conducted for 489 seats in 401 constituencies, represented 26 Indian states. At that time, there were 314 constituencies with one seat, 86 with two seats and one with three seats. The multi-seat constituencies were abolished in the 1960s. There were also 2 nominated Anglo-Indian members.

Results

Notable losses

Scheduled Caste leader and the creator of the constitution B. R. Ambedkar was defeated in the Bombay (North Central) constituency as Scheduled Castes Federation candidate by his little-known former assistant and Congress Candidate Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar, who polled 138137 votes compared to Ambedkar's 123576 votes.^[5] Dr Ambedkar then entered the parliament as a Rajya Sabha member. He contested bye-poll from Bhandara in 1954 to try to enter Lok Sabha but again lost to Mr Borkar of Congress.

Acharya Kripalani lost from Faizabad in UP as KMPP candidate, but his wife Sucheta Kripalani defeated the Congress candidate in Delhi.

Government formation

The Speaker of the first Lok Sabha was Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar. The first Lok Sabha also witnessed 677 sittings (3,784 hours), the highest recorded count of the number of sittings. The Lok Sabha lasted its full term from 17 April 1952 until 4 April 1957.

Duration

While Indian Government's official websites and official documents assign the year 1951 to these polls, it is a misrepresentation because all territories except Himachal and Jammu-Kashmir voted in February-March 1952; no polls were held for Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir until 1967, and ONLY Himachal Pradesh voted in 1951 for the first Lok Sabha because weather tends to be inclement in February and March, heavy snow impending free movement. ^[6] Rest of the India voted only in Fenbruary and March 1952 for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Polling was held between 25 October 1951 and 27 March 1952. The very first votes of the election were cast in the tehsil (district) of Chini in Himachal Pradesh.^[7]

See also

• Election Commission of India
• Indian presidential election, 1952

Further reading

• Guha, Ramachandra. "Democracy's Biggest Gamble," World Policy Journal, (Spring 2002) 19#1 pp95–103

References