17 elections & counting: Making of Indian democracy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

India heads to the 18th Lok Sabha elections after 76 years of Independence, Anubhuti Vishnoi looks back at the electoral journey travelled by the largest democracy. It is one marked with many milestones — the largest electorate in the world at over 900 million; women voters who closed the gender gap in voter turnout in 2019 and outdid men; and the only country to transition to paperless ballot through EVMs.THE FIRST GENERAL ELECTIONS Things moved swiftly in independent India with the adoption of the Constitution on November 26, 1949. Four months later, Sukumar Sen was appointed the first Chief Election Commissioner. With this, the country embarked on the 'great experiment' to conduct the first nationwide election. In April 1950, the Representation of People Act was passed by provisional Parliament. The first general election was held in 68 phases between October 25, 1951 and February 21, 1952. Around 53 political parties and 533 independents were in the fray for 489 seats. Around 173,212,343 voters were registered out of a population of 361,088,090 and 45.8% voter turnout was recorded.

The Indian National Congress wrested 364 of the 489 seats and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru became India's first democratically elected Prime Minister. The first general election was what Sukumar Sen described as 'an act of faith'. Every general election still is.THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL PARTIES The first elections opened up new political and electoral fault lines and sowed the seeds of a multi-party democracy. While the Congress won and did so for several elections to come, indicating a 'national consensus', new political formations emerged over the following decades. Of the 14 parties in the fray in 1952, four retained the