# The first general election
**पहला आम चुनाव**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/first-election-1951/
- Chapter: [The Republic and its states](https://indianepics.online/chapter/republic.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 1951 CE – 1952 CE
- Where: Kalpa (Chini), Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (31.537, 78.254)
- Tags: political

## Summary

The first votes are cast in snowbound Chini on 25 October 1951; by February 1952 an electorate of 173 million has chosen the first Lok Sabha.

25 अक्टूबर 1951 को बर्फ़ से घिरे चीनी में पहले वोट पड़े; फ़रवरी 1952 तक 17.3 करोड़ मतदाताओं वाले देश ने पहली लोकसभा चुन ली।

## Account

Chini, the old name of the Kalpa area in Kinnaur, and Pangi in the Himalaya voted first because snow would close them by winter; the schoolteacher Shyam Saran Negi of Kalpa is remembered as the first voter. Most of the country polled in January and February 1952. Since most voters could not read, every party had a symbol and every candidate a separate ballot box.

The Congress won 364 of the 489 elected seats with 45 per cent of the vote. The 401 constituencies were the first electoral map of the Republic, run by Sukumar Sen's new Election Commission; Jammu and Kashmir did not vote.

## Sources

- Election Commission of India, Report on the First General Elections in India 1951-52, vol. II (Statistical) — https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.449149
- The Hindu, Revisiting India's first general election, 1951-52 (2026) — https://www.thehindu.com/infographics/2026-10-24/india-first-general-election-1951-52/index.html
- Guha, India after Gandhi (2007)

## Image

Indian election 1952 ballot boxes. Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIndian_election_1952_ballot_boxes.jpeg

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