The biggest election in the world: Journey of Indian election

 The biggest election in the world: Journey of Indian electionSince the first general elections, a lot has changed in the country. The country, its technology and electorate has evolved over time.Indian National Congress won 361 of the total 494 seats. However, its vote share was reduced to 45% from 48% in the previous election. Four other parties — CPI, Jan Sangh, Swatantra Party & PSP — won double digit seats. Nehru became the PM again, but his health started declining amidst the Sino-Indian war. After his return from Kashmir

Gulzari Lal Nanda was appointed the interim PM, who was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri for 19 months before his death. Indira Gandhi then took over in 1966.Under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, the Indian National Congress won 283 seats out of the total 520 constituencies. But the party’s vote share was down to about 41%. It also suffered a major setback as non-Congress ministries were established in Bihar, Kerala, Orissa, Madras, the Punjab and West Bengal. Six parties won in double digits, with C Rajagopala Chari’s Swatantra Party winning 44 seats and emerging as the single largest opposition party. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister for the second time.

Congress under Indira Gandhi won 352 seats of the total 518 while the faction under Morarji Desai secured only 16 seats. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister for the third time. On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court invalidated her 1971 election on the grounds of electoral malpractices. Instead of resigning, Indira Gandhi declared an Emergency in the country and jailed the entire Opposition. The Emergency lasted till March 1977.

Bharatiya Lok Dal or Janata Dal emerged a winner, defeating Congress for the first time. The BLD was formed at the end of 1974 with the coalition of seven parties, including the Swatantra Party, the Utkal Congress, the Bharatiya Kranti Dal, and the Socialist Party. The BLD won 295 of the 542 seats while the Congress bagged only 154. Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, but had to step down in 1979 after alliance partners withdrew support. He was succeeded by Charan Singh.

Being the biggest democracy in the world, the electoral procedure of India is considered as the standard by many countries.

Sukumar Sen, an INS officer, who also served as the chief secretary of West Bengal, was the first Chief Election Commissioner of the nation. He assumed charge on March 21, 1950, two months after the inception of the polls body. He was the who conducted the first two general elections in Independent India.

During an interview with PTI, former Chief Election Commissioner Qureshi said, "I have no inhibition in saying that nearly 80 per of what we do today (as an Election Commission) is what he had started. We are carrying it forward. And, thumbs up to the Commission and its role over the years".

The Congress came riding to power by securing 353 seats of the 529 seats, while the Janata Party could manage only 32 seats.

During the first election in India in 1951, Voters elected the 489 members of the first Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. Elections to most of the state legislatures were also held simultaneously.

The 489 seats of the Lok Sabha were allotted across 401 constituencies in 25 states. There were 314 constituencies electing one member using the first-past-the-post system. 86 constituencies elected two members, one from the general category and one from Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. There was one constituency with three elected representatives.[2] The multi-seat constituencies were created as reserved seats for backward sections of society, and were abolished in the 1960s. The constitution at this time also provided for two Anglo-Indian members to be nominated by the President of India.

Indira Gandhi’s assassination led to anti-Sikh riots in 1984. The Congress came to power with a landslide win due to sympathy for Indira Gandhi, and her son Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister. It won 414 of the 514 seats.

During this election, a total of 1,949 people contested from the 489 

seats. Each candidate was allotted a different coloured ballot box at the polling booth, on which each candidate's name and symbol were written.

A total of 173,212,343 voters were registered (excluding Jammu and Kashmir) out of a population of 361,088,090 according to the 1951 census, making it the largest election conducted at the time. All Indian citizens over the age of 21 were eligible to vote.The first election was held in 68 phases. A total of 196,084 polling booths were set up, of which 27,527 booths were reserved for women.

Amidst the Bofors scandal, rising terrorism in Punjab, and civil war between LTTE and Sri Lankan government, Congress began to lose credibility and popularity. The elections were held in two phases on November 22 and November 26, 1989 for 525 seats in the Lok Sabha. India saw hung house for the first time, with the Congress winning 197 seats, Janata Dal 143 and BJP 85. The Janata Dal formed

the National Front government with outside support from BJP and the left parties. VP Singh became the Prime Minister. Chandra Shekhar broke away from Janata Dal in 1990 and formed the Samajwadi Janata Party. He became the 11th Prime Minister, and finally resigned on March 6, 1991.

The result was a landslide victory for the Indian National Congress (INC), which received 45% of the vote and won 364 of the 489 seats.

Through out the years, the number of Loksabha seats saw an increase, which now stands at 545. Unlike the first general elections, the elections are now conducted for 29 states and 7 federal territories including Jammu and kashmir which were exempted from the then election.

A total of 2354 registered political parties are currently eligible to run for the 545 seats.In 2019, the general elections were held in 7 phases. 911.9 million people voted which saw a record turnout of 67.4 percent across one million polling stations.

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