Indian Election Results

Abstract

? return to power of the Congress Party, headed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.1 The President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, announced his nominations to the Council of States (the upper house of Parliament) on April 2, 1952, thus completing the formalities of the elections.2 The House of the People, with 499 members, and the Council of States, with 216,3 which together constitute the central Parliament, and state Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils, whose membership totals over three thousand, are now prepared to carry on the responsibilities of representative government by virtue of a mandate given by the Indian people. This election, based on adult suffrage, was started in the late fall of 1951 in order to assure an orderly procedure in canvassing the political opinions of 176 million eligible voters.4 Today, as new ministries are being formed, observers can report that this first major trial of the citizens of India in the democratic process has been both fair and orderly and the results generally indicative of the good com? mon sense which a large, illiterate electorate can show in choosing its representatives. The main political consequence of the election is the fact that Prime Minister Nehru's Congress Party will continue to govern India during the next five years. Both at the center and in most of the states, the Congress won clear victories; but there were also significant local successes for Communist Party and Communist-front candidates in several parts of India, Richard Leonard Park, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Middle East Institute now in India, where he has resided for the last five years. He is working with Indian scholars on a study of the Indian general election of 1951-52, sponsored and conducted by members of the Indian Political Science Associa? tion and aided by the Institute of Pacific Relations. When completed this study will contain detailed discussions of the election process and its results.