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Throwback to India's first Lok Sabha elections

March 14, 2019 15:43 IST

The biggest electoral exercise in the world -- India’s general elections -- will be held in seven phases across 543 parliamentary constituencies starting on April 11 till May 19, the Election Commission announced on Sunday.

The results will be out on May 23.

As India gears up for this massive exercise, here's a throwback to when the nation voted for the first time -- held between October 25 1951 to 21 February 1952.

IMAGE: A scene of an election camp at Delhi in 1952 showing active participation of women. Photograph: @PIB_India/Twitter

In the '50s, a whopping 1,849 candidates had contested for 489 seats in the Lok Sabha. Around 173 million people were eligible to vote in the election which was the biggest at that time. The voter turnout was 45.7 per cent.

IMAGE: The world expected the experiment to fail; We, the people, proved them all wrong & India prospered into the world's largest democracy. Photograph: @PIB_India/Twitter

When the results were announced, it was the Congress that won with 45 per cent of the votes. Jawaharlal Nehru became the first elected Prime Minister of the country.

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