The first Lok Sabha was elected in the first general elections of independent India.
Since August 1947, the country was run by an interim legislature called the Indian Constituent Assembly.
Elections were held on the basis of universal adult suffrage and anyone over the age of 21 years could cast his/her franchise.
The 53 political parties contested for 489 seats. There were about 1874 candidates from various parties. There were 401 constituencies and some had multiple seats. In the 1960s, the multi-seat constituencies were done away with.
Out of a total population of 36 crore, about 17.32 crore were eligible to vote. There was a turnout of 45% in the first general elections.
The INC won the elections in a big way. It received four times as many votes as the second-largest party. INC won 364 seats and the Communist Party of India (CPI) was second with 16 seats. Almost 45% of the votes went in INC’s favour.
Before the elections, a mock election was held in September 1951 since most people of the country were unfamiliar with the election process.
The first Election Commissioner of India was Sukumar Sen.
2 members of the Anglo-Indian community were nominated to the Lok Sabha.
Prominent winners were Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sucheta Kripalani, Gulzari Lal Nanda, Kakasaheb Kalelkar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, etc.
B R Ambedkar lost to INC candidate Narayan Sadoba Kajrolkar in the Bombay (North-Central) seat. Ambedkar stood as a Scheduled Castes Federation (party) candidate. Acharya Kripalani also lost from Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Although elections started in October 1951, most of the country voted in January-February of 1952.
