Hindustan Times

Dipankar Ghose

Dhrubo Jyoti

These were the years of the Congress, and of Jawaharlal Nehru. Smaller parties could win only a handful of seats. The Communist Party of India emerged as the second-biggest party in the Lok Sabha, but was a distant runner-up.

A Centre takes shape

India’s first general election resulted in a landslide victory for the Congress, led by prime minister and chief campaigner Jawaharlal Nehru. The party secured 364 seats and nearly 45% of the vote.Smaller parties were led by stalwarts such as JP Kripalani (the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Parishad), Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan (Socialist Party), Syama Prasad Mookerjee (the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) and BR Ambedkar (the Scheduled Caste Federation), but these could win only a handful of seats.The Communist Party of India emerged as the second-biggest party in the Lok Sabha, but was a distant runner-up, with 16 seats. The situation didn’t change much in 1957. The Congress roared back to power, with 371 seats and 48% of the votes, even as the Communist Party of India slightly improved its tally, to 27.The 1962 election was the first time that all seats were single-member constituencies. In Nehru’s final general election campaign, the Congress held on to its dominance and won 361 seats and 44.7% of the votes. The Opposition also marginally improved its position: the CPI won 29 seats, the Swatantra Party, 18, the Praja Socialist Party, 12 and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, 14.