By- Shivanshi Srivastava
First general election in India, held over a four-month period in 1951-52
Each candidate was allotted a separate ballot box at polling booths, differently coloured, on which each candidate's name and election symbol was labelled.
The elections were held from Oct 15, 1951, to Feb 21, 1952, for an electorate of over 173 million (173,212,343).
The first phase was held in the assembly constituencies of Chini and Pangi in Himachal Pradesh, before the onset of winter, while the final 68th phase was held in Uttar Pradesh.
The ballot papers were printed by the Election Commission at the Government of India Security Press at Nashik, where the Indian currency notes were also printed.
The first general election had a total number of 1,874 candidates, including 533 independents. The number of political parties participating were 53, including 14 national parties.
As many as 196,084 polling stations were set up throughout the length and breadth of the country, of which 27,527 were exclusively reserved for women. Of the 173 million electorate, 105,950,083 voted.
After the votes were counted and results declared, the first House of the People was constituted by the Election Commission on April 2, 1952.
To help out in the election process, a provision was made under Section 159 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, to allow the employees of local authorities and government servants to be deployed on election duty.