General election in India 1957
The parliamentary elections in India in 1957 were the second election of the Lok Sabha since the proclamation of the Republic of India in 1950. They took place, spread over several days, essentially between February 24, 1957 and March 15, 1957. In a few constituencies of Punjab and in the whole of Himachal Pradesh , due to the weather conditions, elections were only held from May 24th to July 15th, 1957. The turnout was 45.44 percent, roughly the same as in the previous election 1951–52 . The election ended with a nationwide election victory for the Congress Party, which was able to maintain its share of the vote and mandate that it had received in 1951-52. Strongly favored by the relative majority vote , the Congress party won a three-quarters majority of the seats with 47.8% of the vote. The strongest opposition party in terms of votes was the Praja Socialist Party , in which the socialists were united, which won 2.8% of the seats with 10.4% of the vote. In terms of percentage of votes, the Communists followed , who received 5.5% of the seats with 8.9% of the votes. At the same time as the election of the Lok Sabha, there were also elections to the state parliaments.
Developments since the last election
Domestic politics
In the elections of 1951–52 - the first after the constitution of the Republic of India came into force in 1950 - the Congress Party, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, had achieved an all-out victory. In the Lok Sabha and in most of the state parliaments, Congress won the vast majority of seats. Nehru could feel legitimized afterwards to form a government only from partisans of the Congress party ( cabinet Nehru II ). In addition, Vallabhbhai Patel died early in 1950 , who formed a kind of conservative antithesis within the Congress Party to the Nehru, who was inspired by socialist ideas. As a result, Nehru was able to enforce his ideas relatively unhindered and supported by a very large majority after winning the 1951-52 election. Nehru generally distrusted the western capitalist economic system and did not consider it suitable for India. Instead, his government's economic policy was based heavily on the model of the Soviet Union . The economy was directed and developed according to a planned economy, among other things through the first five-year plan begun in 1951, and the state intervened in all areas of economic life to regulate and regulate. In the years 1951 to 1956 India achieved an average annual economic growth of 3.6%.
The most important domestic policy change in the previous legislature was the reorganization of the states, which was carried out in the States Reorganization Act , which went into effect on November 1, 1956. In the previous years there had been a steadily increasing agitation calling for the revision of the federal state borders, which had been taken over from the colonial era, in favor of the formation of linguistically and ethnically defined federal states. Nehru, who opposed this development, and who would have loved to create a new Indian nation with Hindi as the state language , could not avoid the pressure of mass agitation. The movement achieved its first success with the formation of the Telugu -speaking state of Andhra from parts of the state of Madras in 1953. With the 1956 Act , the number of states was reduced from 27 to 14. In addition there were 6 union territories . The previous distinction between A, B and C states was no longer applicable, and the formerly ruling Indian princes lost their last constitutional roles as formal, albeit politically powerless, heads of the previous B states. The elections in 1957 were thus also the first elections for the new state parliaments.
Foreign policy
In terms of foreign policy, Nehru pursued a policy of non-alignment independent of the East-West conflict . His skepticism towards the West was mainly based on the fact that many NATO countries, namely Great Britain and France, still had extensive colonial possessions in Africa and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, and India saw itself as a champion of decolonization . This contrasted with a certain intransigence and one-sidedness in Nehru's attitude towards the policy of the Soviet Union, which also met with criticism in India. For example, Nehru refused to call the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 an act of repression and justified Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact as a reaction to the perceived threat from NATO. With its consistently anti-colonialist stance, India took a leading role in the movement of the non-aligned states that constituted themselves at the Bandung Conference from April 18 to 24, 1955 as the so-called “ Third World ”.
In 1954 the last French colonial possessions in India were handed over from France to India.
Preparation and implementation of the elections
Division of constituencies
The States Reorganization Act rearranged the boundaries of most states. As a result, the constituency boundaries had to be redrawn by the Delimitation Commission . This affected both the constituencies for the Lok Sabha and the constituencies of the federal state parliaments. The demarcation commission was only able to take action after the Act came into force on September 1, 1956, but despite the considerable time pressure, it managed to define new constituency boundaries in good time and to update the electoral register accordingly. When determining the constituency boundaries, the delimitation commission adhered to the principle that only one or a maximum of two-person constituencies should be formed for the Lok Sabha. The two-person constituencies were formed in regions in which there was a high proportion of the population of Scheduled Castes (SC) and / or Scheduled Tribes (ST). The constitution stipulated that constituencies for the ST and SC were to be reserved according to their proportion of the population. Since the proportion of the population of the SC and ST was usually not so high that they formed the local majority, they resorted to the establishment of two-person constituencies, with one of the MPs to be elected in each case belonging to the ST or SC. All 76 ST MPs were elected in two-person constituencies, while the 31 ST MPs were elected in 16 one-person and 15 two-person constituencies.
| State or Union Territory |
Total constituencies |
Constituencies by seats | Seats reserved for |
Elected MPs |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 seat | 2 seat | SC | ST | |||
| Andhra Pradesh | 35 | 27 | 8th | 6th | 2 | 43 |
| Assam | 10 | 8th | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| Bihar | 45 | 37 | 8th | 7th | 5 | 53 |
| Bombay | 58 | 50 | 8th | 7th | 5 | 66 |
| Delhi | 4th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4th |
| Kerala | 16 | 14th | 2 | 2 | 0 | 18th |
| Madhya Pradesh | 27 | 18th | 9 | 5 | 7th | 36 |
| Madras | 34 | 27 | 7th | 7th | 0 | 41 |
| Manipur | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mysore | 23 | 20th | 3 | 3 | 0 | 26th |
| Orissa | 14th | 8th | 6th | 4th | 4th | 20th |
| Punjab | 17th | 12 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 22nd |
| Rajasthan | 18th | 14th | 4th | 3 | 2 | 22nd |
| Tripura | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 68 | 50 | 18th | 18th | 0 | 86 |
| West Bengal | 28 | 20th | 8th | 6th | 2 | 36 |
| total | 403 | 312 | 91 | 76 | 31 | 494 |
MPs appointed by the President
In addition to the 494 directly elected MPs, there were 11 MPs appointed by President Rajendra Prasad . Among them were 6 MPs from Jammu and Kashmir, who were indirectly elected by the parliament of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the special constitutional status of this state, before the President then formally nominated them. One representative each for the territories of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , the Laccadives , Minicoy and Amindives (today together Lakshadweep ) and the North-East Frontier Agency with Tuensang Area (Naga tribal areas) was appointed by the president. There were also two representatives for the Anglo-Indian minority. A few months after the election, the Tuensang Area and the Assamese Naga Hills District were formed into a new union territory, the later Nagaland , for which a further member of parliament appointed by the president moved into parliament.
Election campaign
In the election, the Congress Party faced a variety of political parties. The Indian election commission officially recognized 15 parties. These included the four "national parties" Congress, Communist Party, Praja Socialist Party and Bharatiya Jana Sangh, as well as 11 other "state parties". There were also more than 25 other unregistered parties and thousands of non-party individual candidates. In its election campaign, the Congress Party invoked its long tradition as a champion of Indian independence. The aim now is to use peaceful and democratic means to promote the construction of an egalitarian, “socialist” society in which everyone has equal opportunities and in which the state ensures the welfare of all. The leaders of Congress stressed the importance of stable government for both domestic development and external relations. In terms of economic policy, the congress spoke out in favor of a continued strong state-controlled economy. The Communist Party (CPI) saw themselves as the main opponent of Congress. Congress had failed to deliver on its political promises in the previous 10 years of rule. Above all, the communists demanded economic policy changes. The remaining British capital and “monopolies” were to be smashed and the state-controlled companies expanded. Land reform must take place and India should leave the Commonwealth . The socialists of the Praja Socialist Party tried to differentiate themselves from the congress party as the “real socialists”. This had only adopted a socialist program at their party congress in Avadi in 1955, while the Praja socialists had done this decades earlier. However, in 1955 there had been a split within the PSP. From the majority faction under Asoka Mehta , a faction split off under Rammonohar Lohia , who seemed to be consensus-oriented about Mehta's policy towards Congress. The Jana Sangh, as the fourth national party, took the position that instead of Nehru's "appeasement and surrender" policy, a decisive and energetic policy of national interest should be pursued.
In the various states there were also a large number of different smaller parties representing different particular interests. In some cases, dissatisfaction with the provisions of the States Reorganization Act also played a role. For example, in the state of Bombay, both Gujaratis and Marathis agitated for the division of the state into linguistically defined states.
Timing of the election
Various aspects had to be considered when setting the election dates. On the one hand, the constitution stipulated a legislative period of no more than 5 years for the Lok Sabha and the federal state parliaments . The state parliaments had met between March and May 1952, and the Lok Sabha had held its first session in May 1952. The respective parliaments had to be dissolved by these months in 1957 at the latest. On the other hand, the different climatic conditions in India had to be taken into account when setting the election dates, which made it very difficult to hold the election at certain times of the year, especially in rural regions. The months of December and January seemed unsuitable for the southern states due to the monsoons . From April the climate was again very hot in some states, such as Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. After April there was a risk of heavy rains in some parts of the country, such as B. Assam, and from June large parts of north and central India were under the influence of the monsoons. The months of February and March were therefore considered the most appropriate for a nationwide election. The only exception to this were the mountain regions in Himachal Pradesh and parts of Punjab, where there was still snow at that time. The electoral commission would have preferred to hold the election nationwide in a single day, but this proved to be organizationally impractical. On the one hand, the road and transport infrastructure in most parts of the country was nowhere near sufficient, and on the other hand there were far too few police forces to monitor the elections at the same time. It was decided to hold the elections on different days in February and March and to dissolve some state parliaments early in order to allow the newly elected parliaments to meet in good time. This affected the federal state parliaments of Bihar, Bombay, Madras, Mysore, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Another argument in favor of an early election was the fact that the presidential election was due in May 1957 and that the Electoral College , which was made up of members of all Indian parliaments, should have been newly constituted by then.
Ultimately, the elections could essentially be completed in all states and Union territories before March 31, 1957. The only exceptions were the Kangra (Lok Sabha) and Kulu (federal state parliament) constituencies in Punjab, as well as all constituencies in Himachal Pradesh. Originally, an election in February / March was planned here too, but this turned out to be impracticable. In Kangra there were only elections in June and in Himachal Pradesh in May and June 1957. At the same time as the Lok Sabha election, there were elections to the state parliaments. The only exception was Andhra , where parliament was elected in 1955. However, an election was held in the Telangana part of Andhra Pradesh.
| State or Union Territory |
Election dates |
|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | February 25, March 1, 4, 7, 11, 1957 |
| Assam | February 25, March 2, 6, 9-11, and March 15, 1957 |
| Bihar | 25th, 26th, 28th February, 1st - 12th March 1957 |
| Bombay | February 25, March 2, 6, 11, 1957 |
| Delhi | March 3, 1957 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 24.-31. May 1-7 June 1957 |
| Kerala | February 28, March 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 1957 |
| Madhya Pradesh | February 25, 28, November 1–11 March 1957 |
| Madras | 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th, 11th March 1957 |
| Manipur | February 25, March 2, 11, 1957 |
| Mysore | 25th, 26th, 28th February, 1st - 12th March 1957 |
| Orissa | February 24th, 25th, 28th, 1st - 12th March 1957 |
| Punjab |
Level: 24., 26. – 28. February, 1.-14. March 1957 Bergland: 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 20th, 25th June, 2nd, 15th July 1957 |
| Rajasthan | 25th, 27th, 28th February, 1st - 12th March 1957 |
| Tripura | March 1st, 5th, 9th, 12th 1957 |
| Uttar Pradesh | February 25, 28, March 3, 6, 9, 12, 1957 |
| West Bengal | 1st - 14th March 1957 |
Eligible voters and turnout
A total of 494 MPs were formally to be elected, 312 in one-person and 91 in two-person constituencies. In the two-person constituencies, voters each had two votes. In 12 one-person constituencies there was either no opposing candidate or all opposing candidates withdrew their candidacy before the election date, so that only one candidate remained. These 12 candidates, all of whom were members of the Congress Party, were declared elected without being elected. In addition, since not all voters in the two-person constituencies cast both votes, the turnout cannot simply be calculated based on the votes cast. The figures given in the following table follow the presentation of the Indian Electoral Commission.
| State or Union Territory |
electoral legitimate |
available votes |
votes cast |
Participation (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | 17,668,716 | 24.285.443 | 9,531,373 | 42.99 |
| Assam | 4,495,359 | 6,008,548 | 2,292,612 | 46.14 |
| Bihar | 19,514,567 | 25,360,721 | 10,007,876 | 40.65 |
| Bombay | 24,458,672 | 30,478,497 | 16.760.285 | 54.99 |
| Kerala | 7,514,626 | 9,160,553 | 6,050,246 | 66.05 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 14,010,137 | 21,077,031 | 7,614,222 | 36.77 |
| Madras | 17,514,993 | 23,383,073 | 10,950,841 | 47.75 |
| Mysore | 10,006,936 | 12,221,328 | 5,798,440 | 52.21 |
| Orissa | 7,983,915 | 12,732,083 | 4,440,490 | 34.88 |
| Punjab | 9,209,026 | 13,364,062 | 7,183,830 | 53.75 |
| Rajasthan | 8,745,726 | 11,908,473 | 4,649,083 | 39.04 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 34.901.603 | 49.756.186 | 22,896,103 | 46.02 |
| West Bengal | 15.216.532 | 21,900,388 | 10.440.100 | 47.67 |
| Delhi | 976.352 | 1,416,143 | 811.344 | 57.29 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 671.906 | 992.814 | 362,641 | 36.53 |
| Manipur | 330.211 | 330.211 | 174.091 | 52.72 |
| Tripura | 432.902 | 865.804 | 550.338 | 63.56 |
| total | 193.652.179 | 265.241.358 | 120,513,915 | 45.44 |
Result
Overall result
Compared to the last election five years ago, the number of parties that were able to win constituency seats was significantly lower. After the 1951/52 election, 22 parties were represented in the Lok Sabha (the number of which, however, decreased in the course of the legislative period due to party mergers and dissolutions), while after the 1957 election there were only 12. The number of non-party candidates rose from 37 to 42. Almost a fifth of all voters (19.32%) had voted for non-party individual candidates - the highest percentage in any Indian general election to date. The election winner across the board was the Congress Party, which received almost half of all votes (47.78%) and thus won 371 Lok Sabha constituencies (75.1%). The Congress Party was similarly successful in the state parliament elections and was able to provide the chief ministers and governments in all states, with one highly regarded exception: in the state of Kerala, the Communist Party won 35.28% of the vote and 60 in the state parliament election of 126 parliamentary seats. Congress received 37.9% and 43 seats. The CPI then formed a coalition government under Chief Minister EMS Namboodiripad (CPI). These occurrences received worldwide attention and were registered with alarm and dismay in the western world. The Namboodiripad government is considered to be the first democratically elected communist government in history. The CPI also did well in the Lok Sabha election in Kerala, winning 9 of the 18 constituencies there. Other focal points of the communists were the states of West Bengal, Bombay and Andhra Pradesh. The Praja Socialist Party (PSP) won the most votes of all opposition parties (10.41%), but was severely disadvantaged by the relative majority voting system, as it had only a few pronounced regional focuses, and was only in 19 constituencies (3.8 %) successfully. The main focus of the socialists were the states of Bombay and Uttar Pradesh with 5 and 4 won constituencies. Some regional parties were successful. In Orissa the conservative Ganatantra Parishad won 7 out of 20 constituencies and in southern Bihar the two regionalist parties, mainly elected by Adivasi , Jharkhand Party and Chota Nagpur Santhal Parganas Janta Party won 6 and 3 constituencies respectively. The three supraregional Hindu nationalist parties Jan Sangh (BJS), Hindu Mahasabha (HMS) and Ram Rajya Parishad received a total of 7.21% of the vote, with the majority going to the BJS (5.97%), and together they won 5 seats (4 BJS, 1 HMS). One of the elected BJS MPs was Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the 56-Balrampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
| Political party | Abbreviation | be right | Seats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | % | +/- | number | +/- | % | ||
| Indian National Congress | INC | 57,579,589 | 47.78% | 2.79% | 371 | 7 | 75.1% |
| Praja Socialist Party | PSP | 12,542,666 | 10.41% | (New) | 19th | (New) | 3.8% |
| Communist Party of India | CPI | 10,754,075 | 8.92% | 5.63% | 27 | 11 | 5.5% |
| Bharatiya Jana Sangh | BJS | 7,193,267 | 5.97% | 2.91% | 4th | 1 | 0.8% |
| Scheduled Castes Federation | SCF | 2,038,890 | 1.69% | 0.69% | 6th | 4 | 1.2% |
| Ganatantra Parishad | GP | 1,291,141 | 1.07% | 0.16% | 7th | 1 | 1.4% |
| People's Democratic Front | 1,044,032 | 0.87% | 0.42% | 2 | 5 | 0.4% | |
| Hindu Mahasabha | HMS | 1,032,322 | 0.86% | 0.09% | 1 | 3 | 0.2% |
| Peasants and Workers Party | PWP | 924.832 | 0.77% | 0.17% | 4th | 2 | 0.8% |
| Jharkhand party | JKP | 751.830 | 0.62% | 0.09% | 6th | 3 | 1.2% |
| All India Forward Bloc (Marxists) | FBM | 665.341 | 0.55% | 0.36% | 2 | 1 | 0.4% |
| Chota Nagpur Santhal Parganas Janta Party | CNSPJP | 501.359 | 0.42% | 0.20% | 3 | 2 | 0.6% |
| Ram Rajya Parishad | RRP | 460,838 | 0.38% | 1.59% | 0 | 3 | 0.0% |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | RSP | 308,742 | 0.26% | 0.18% | 0 | 3 | 0.0% |
| Praja party | PP | 140.742 | 0.12% | (New) | 0 | (New) | 0.0% |
| Independent candidates | Independent | 23.284.249 | 19.32% | 3.42% | 42 | 8.5% | |
| total | 120,513,915 | 100.00% | - | 494 | 5 | 100.0% | |
Results by state and union territories
| State / Union Territory |
Seats | Hindu nationalists |
Congress party |
Communist / left soc. Parties |
Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | 43 | INC 37 |
CPI 2 PDF 2 |
Independent 2 | |
| Assam | 12 | INC 9 | PSP 2 | Independent 1 | |
| Bihar | 53 | INC 41 | PSP 2 |
JCP 6 CNSPJP 3 independence. 1 |
|
| Bombay | 66 | BJS 2 | INC 38 |
PSP 5 CPI 4 PWP 4 |
SCF 5 Independent 8th |
| Delhi | 5 | INC 5 | |||
| Himachal Pradesh | 4th | INC 4 | |||
| Kerala | 18th | INC 6 |
CPI 9 PSP 1 |
Independent 2 | |
| Madhya Pradesh | 36 | ABHM 1 | INC 35 | ||
| Madras | 41 | INC 31 | CPI 2 | Independent 8th | |
| Mysore | 26th | INC 23 | PSP 1 |
SCF 1 Independent 1 |
|
| Manipur | 2 | INC 1 | Independent 1 | ||
| Orissa | 20th | INC 7 |
PSP 2 CPI 1 |
GP 7 Independent 3 |
|
| Punjab | 22nd | INC 21 | CPI 1 | ||
| Rajasthan | 22nd | INC 19 | Independent 3 | ||
| Tripura | 2 | INC 1 | CPI 1 | ||
| Uttar Pradesh | 86 | BJS 2 | INC 70 |
PSP 4 CPI 1 |
Independent 9 |
| West Bengal | 36 | INC 23 |
CPI 6 PSP 2 AIFB 2 |
Independent 3 |
After the election
The election result meant a clear victory for the Congress Party led by Nehru. Congress was even able to increase its share of the vote slightly and again, as in the last election, won a three-quarters majority of the seats in the Lok Sabha. Nehru felt confirmed and on April 18, 1957, after the election, he formed a new cabinet made up of supporters of the Congress party. For the opposition, the elections meant another major defeat. The weakness of the socialists was particularly evident, while the communists had clearly gained votes. The very high proportion of votes cast by non-party candidates also showed that many voters did not see any real alternative to Congress in any of the opposition parties.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on December 22, 2018 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).
- ^ Sukumar Sen: Report on the second general elections in India 1957 . Ed .: Indian Election Commission. tape 1 . Government of India Press, Delhi 1959.
- ↑ 1st Five Year Plan. Indian Planning Commission, accessed on April 28, 2017 .
- ↑ GDP at Factor Cost at 2004-05 Prices, Share to Total GDP and% Rate of Growth in GDP. (PDF) Indian Planning Commission, May 31, 2014, accessed on April 28, 2017 (English).
- ^ Paul F. Power: Indian Foreign Policy: The Age of Nehru . In: The Review of Politics . tape 26 , no. 2 . Cambridge University Press, April 1964, pp. 257-286 , JSTOR : 1405752 (English).
- ↑ Sukumar Sen, Report, Volume 1, Chapter VII: Delimitation of Constituencies, pp. 48-75.
- ↑ Sukumar Sen, Report, Volume 1, pp. 15-16 and p. 71
- ↑ James R. Roach: India's 1957 Elections . In: Far Eastern Survey . tape 26 , no. 5 . Institute of Pacific Relations, May 1957, pp. 65-78 , doi : 10.2307 / 3024537 , JSTOR : 3024537 (English).
- ^ A b N. CB Ray Chaudhury: The Indian General Election . tape 28 , no. 4 . Wiley Online, October 1957, pp. 339–351 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1467-923X.1957.tb01666.x (English).
- ↑ a b c Sukumar Sen, Report, Volume 1, Chapter XI: The Election Time-Table, pp. 108-120
- ↑ Sukumar Sen, Report, Volume 1, pp. 128-129.
- ↑ HW Berg: The Menetekel of Kerala. ZEIT online, April 4, 1957, accessed on May 6, 2017 .
- ^ HW Berg: Communists and Catholics in Kerala. June 26, 1959. Retrieved May 6, 2017 .
- ↑ dated April 18, 1957: The New Union Cabinet. The Hindu, April 18, 2007, accessed April 30, 2017 .
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