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494 of the 505 seats in the Lok Sabha 248 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 193,652,179 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 45.44% ( 0.57pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in India between 24 February and 14 March 1957, the second elections to the Lok Sabha after independence. Elections to many state legislatures were held simultaneously.
Under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian National Congress easily won a second term in power, taking 371 of the 494 seats. They gained an extra seven seats (the size of the Lok Sabha had been increased by five) and their vote share increased from 45% to 48%. The INC received nearly five times more votes than the Communist Party, the second largest party. In addition, 19% of the vote and 42 seats went to independent candidates, the highest of any Indian general election.
Electoral system
There were 494 seats elected using first past the post voting. Out of the 403 constituencies, 91 elected two members, while the remaining 312 elected a single member.[1][2] The multi-seat constituencies were abolished before the next election.
The elections were overseen by Sukumar Sen, the Chief Election Commissioner, who used the existing election infrastructure to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Historian Ramachandra Guha wrote "this general election cost the exchequer Rs45 million less than the previous one. The prudent Sen had safely stored the 3.5 million ballot boxes the first time round and only half a million additional ones were required."[3]
Results
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Indian National Congress | 57,579,589 | 47.78 | 371 | 7 | |
| Praja Socialist Party | 12,542,666 | 10.41 | 19 |  2 | |
| Communist Party of India | 10,754,075 | 8.92 | 27 | 11 | |
| Bharatiya Jana Sangh | 7,193,267 | 5.97 | 4 | 1 | |
| Scheduled Castes Federation | 2,038,890 | 1.69 | 6 | 4 | |
| All India Ganatantra Parishad | 1,291,141 | 1.07 | 7 | 1 | |
| People's Democratic Front | 1,044,032 | 0.87 | 2 | 5 | |
| Hindu Mahasabha | 1,032,322 | 0.86 | 1 | 3 | |
| Peasants and Workers Party of India | 924,832 | 0.77 | 4 | 2 | |
| Jharkhand Party | 751,830 | 0.62 | 6 | 3 | |
| Forward Bloc (Marxist) | 665,341 | 0.55 | 2 | 1 | |
| Chota Nagpur Santhal Parganas Janata Party | 501,359 | 0.42 | 3 | 2 | |
| Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad | 460,838 | 0.38 | 0 | 3 | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | 308,742 | 0.26 | 0 | 3 | |
| Praja Party | 140,742 | 0.12 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 23,284,249 | 19.32 | 42 | 5 | |
| Appointed members[a] | 11 | 1 | |||
| Total | 120,513,915 | 100.00 | 505 | 6 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 193,652,179 | 45.44 | |||
| Source: ECI | |||||
- ^ Six representing Jammu and Kashmir, two representing Anglo-Indians, one representing Part B Tribal Areas in Assam, one representing the Amindive, Laccadive and Minicoy Islands and one representing the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.