1951 to 2014 How did LS numbers change?

India has had 16 general elections to the Lok Sabha so far. The number of eligible voters went up from 17.3 crore in 1951 to 83.40 crore in 2014. While only 53 political parties contested the election in 1951, 465 political parties contested in 2014.

Much has changed in the country from the time of the first general election to the Lok Sabha in 1951 to the 16th general election in 2014. A lot of things about elections have also changed, from voter turnout to polling booths to contesting political parties.

More voters & mixed turnout

While the number of registered voters has increased continuously from the first general election in 1951, the voter turnout has been mixed. In 1951, there were only 17.3 crore registered voters and the voter turnout was 61.2%. The voter turnout increased to 63.73% in 1957. From 1957, the voter turnout has fluctuated (increasing & decreasing alternatively) till 1989.

In the elections that were held in 1991-92, the voter turnout further went down to 55.88%. After that the voter turnout increased in both 1996 and 1998 elections. It then went down in 1999 and 2004 elections. The voter turnout slightly improved in 2009. The highest voter turnout in the India’s election history was in the recent 2014 elections.

Record 66.3% voters turned up at the polling booths in 2014. The voter turnout was less than 60% on 8 different occasions and more than 60% in eight other occasions. There has been nine fold jump in the number of contesting political parties. In the 1951 election, only 53 political parties contested while this number was just 15 in the 1957 election.

The number of contesting political parties remained at less than 50 for most of the elections till 1984-85. In the 9th general election in 1989, the number of contesting political parties crossed 100 for the first time. Since then, it is more or less on the rise. This could be due to the emergence of strong regional and local parties in various parts of the country since the latter half of 1980s.

In 2009, 363 political parties contested elections while this number went up to 465 in 2014. By last count, there are more than 1900 registered political parties in the country. In other words, not more than 25% of the registered political parties are contesting elections. The trend of registering political parties without contesting elections has gone up in the last decade.

Number of contestants goes up

From about an average of three contestants per constituency in 1957, the average number of contestants went up to a maximum of 25.7 per constituency in 1996. The average number of contestants remained between 3 and 5 for the first six general elections up to 1977. In the 7th general election in 1980, the average went up to 8.8. After 1980, it continuously went up to 25.7 in 1996.

The Election Commission of India increased the amount of the security deposit from a mere Rs 500 to Rs 10, 000 after the 1996 election that helped in bringing down the average number of contestants per constituency to 8.75 candidates in 1998 elections. From 2004, the average has again been on the rise again from 10 contestants per constituency in 2004 to 15.2 in 2014.

Regional parties gain strength

National parties won more than 80% of the seats in each of the first ten general elections from 1951 to 1991-92. It is after 1992, the regional state parties emerged stronger and have consistently won more than 20% of the seats on offer. The state parties won close to 1/3rd of all the seats on offer in 2014 despite the BJP getting a majority on its own.

The decline of the national parties started after 1992 and has continued ever since. In 2014, National parties won 342 seats (282 by the BJP) and the State parties won 176 seats. (Courtesy: https://factly.in)