Opinion History Headline: How EC prepared electoral rolls for free India’s first polls

In July 1947 itself, the Constituent Assembly had decided to grant voting rights to every citizen aged 21 or older, a bold commitment to universal adult suffrage for a young nation. By March 1948, the Assembly Secretariat issued detailed directions to states for preparing draft electoral rolls. These directions specified eligibility criteria: voters had to be Indian citizens, at least 21 years old as of January 1, 1949, and residents of a village or electoral unit for at least 180 days in the year ending March 31, 1948.

Since delimitation was yet to be initiated, the rolls were organised village-wise to facilitate later segregation into constituencies once boundaries were defined. Enumerators conducted house-to-house inquiries, using house numbers listed in the 1941 Census and assigned supplementary numbers to new premises.

The details sought for the proposed rolls included: the voter’s name, parent or spouse’s name, address, sex, age, and, religion or caste to determine eligibility for reserved seats for Muslims, Christians, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. The Constituent Assembly had initially considered reserving seats for Muslims and Christians, apart from SCs and STs. However, in May 1949, the Assembly reversed its plan to reserve seats for Muslims and Christians. Consequently, states were directed to remove these details from the rolls.

One of the key challenges for the enumerators was to register displaced persons. States were advised to include these individuals based on a simple declaration of their intent to reside permanently in India, regardless of their actual residency period. This pragmatic approach ensured the inclusion of refugees, many of whom lacked documentation due to the chaos of Partition and the resultant influx of refugees from West Punjab and East Bengal in the newly created Pakistan.

In July 1948, the Constituent Assembly publicised the voter enumeration process with January 1, 1949, as the reference date for the electoral rolls. EC reports say the pace of the exercise varied across states, with some advancing rapidly while others lagged due to logistical and other reasons.

The Constitution’s provisions on citizenship and the establishment of the Election Commission of India took effect on November 26, 1949, with the full Constitution of India enforced on January 26, 1950. The Election Commission of India (ECI) was established on January 25, 1950, with Sukumar Sen appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner. Operating as a single-member body, the ECI took full control of the electoral process after that.

The Representation of the People Act, 1950, enacted in April that year, provided the legal framework for voter qualifications and roll preparation. However, it introduced changes that invalidated the rolls that had been prepared until then.

The qualifying date for the minimum age of voting was shifted to March 1, 1950, and the residency period was changed from April 1, 1947, to December 31, 1949. These changes necessitated extensive revisions to include newly eligible voters and rectify errors.

Now, with the new law in hand, the ECI directed state governments to prepare supplementary rolls to list voters who might have turned 21 years between January 1949 and March 1950 or may have met the new residency criteria. Special provisions were made for armed forces personnel and certain government employees, whose names were listed separately to facilitate postal voting.

The ECI ordered the informal publication of the draft rolls in May 1950, making them accessible at important government offices. By November 1950, most Part-A states had published preliminary rolls, except for West Bengal, Punjab, Bihar and Orissa. Due to these delays, the ECI kept extending the date for filing claims and objections, ultimately fixing December 23, 1950.

A big challenge was to register displaced persons, particularly in Punjab, West Bengal, Delhi, and Assam. The inclusion of marginalised groups, such as women and Scheduled Castes, required innovative approaches. Many women, particularly in rural areas, were reluctant to provide their names, often registering under their husband’s or father’s name.

The final delimitation report by the Election Commission was completed by August 1951, enabling the final publication of rolls. The final publication of the voter rolls began in September 1951, with the last rolls published on November 15, 1951. The final electoral rolls included 17.32 crore voters (excluding J&K), approximately 49 per cent of the country’s population of 35.67 crore (excluding J&K). With an adult population (over 21 years of age) of about 18.03 crore, the enrollment was nearly 96 per cent.

Even in the face of the most daunting challenges, the EC had thus pulled off the electoral rolls exercise, taking utmost care to ensure that no eligible voter was left out.

The writer is Senior Associate Editor, The Indian Express