10 interesting facts about India's first general election

The first general elections were held from 25 October 1951 until 21 February 1952.

In the elections, there were about 1,874 candidates and 53 parties.

At the time, India's population was pegged at nearly 36 crore people, out of which 17.32 crore were eligible to vote.

The elections were held for 489 seats.

There were 196,084 polling places across the country, 27,527 of which were exclusively reserved for women.

The very first votes of the election were cast in the tehsil (district) of Chini in Himachal Pradesh.

The voter turnout for the first general election of India was 45.7 per cent.

The results of India's first general elections were declared on 10 February 1952. Being the country's first general elections, the day is also recognised as India's first democratic leap.

Jawaharlal Nehru's Indian National Congress (INC) won the elections with 364 seats.

Communist Party of India (CPI) came in second with 16 seats and 3.29 per cent of the vote, while Jayaprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohiya’s Socialist Party finished third with 10.59 per cent of the vote and 12 seats.