53 parties contested first general election, more than half won no seats

The power was concentrated in the hands of the Congress, which was the chief beneficiary of the nationalist movement. It was contesting in 425 out of the 489 seats, across 25 states and Union Territories.

Prominent among those opposing the Congress were J B Kripalani’s Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP), the Socialist Party which was being represented by a young and rebellious Jayaprakash Narayan, and the All India Bharatiya Jana Sangh founded by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Professor Balraj Madhok and Deendayal Upadhyay. While KMPP was contesting in 145 seats across 16 states, the Socialist Party fought in 254 seats across 21 states. Both these parties were dissidents of the Congress and accused the latter of not fulfilling its commitment towards the poor. They were Leftist parties who claimed to uphold the Gandhian Congress ideals of placing the interests of the peasants and the workers above all else.

The Bharatiya Jan Sangh contested in 94 seats across 15 states and UTs with the objective of consolidating the Hindus as their primary vote bloc.

Among the other national parties were the Bolshevik Party of India (BPI) which contested only a single seat in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (CPI) which fought in 49 seats across 14 states, and the Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad (RRP) in 31 seats across 10 states.

Then there were as many as 39 regional parties, each based on affiliations of ethnicity and religion. The Jharkhand Party in Bihar for instance, contested in seven seats, with the motto of creating a separate state for the tribal people. Similarly, the Cochin Party, which contested in a single seat in Travancore, was opposed to being integrated with the state and went to polls with the slogan, ‘Cochin for Cochinites’. Other regional parties included the Madras State Muslim League which contested in a single seat in Madras, the Kuki National Association, which again was fighting polls from just one seat in Manipur, and the Zamindar Party which contested in five seats from Punjab.

These diverse parties carried out the most vibrant election campaign, through public meetings, door-to-door campaigning, and the use of visuals. Historian Ramachandra Guha in his book India After Gandhi cites political scientist Richard Park, who on the eve of the election wrote, “The leading Indian parties and party workers are surpassed by those of no other country in electioneering skill, dramatic presentation of issues, political oratory, or mastery of political psychology.”

Despite the large number of choices, the popularity of the Congress was clearly widespread. It emerged as the winner in 364 seats. The party won 44.99 per cent of the votes. Among the notable defeats in the Congress was that of B R Ambedkar in Bombay who lost against an obscure milkman named Kajrolkar.

The party with the second highest number of seats was the CPI, though it was miles behind the Congress at 16 seats and 3.29 per cent of total vote share. The Socialist Party followed with 12 seats, and the KMPP won nine seats. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh won three of the 94 seats it contested and 3.06 per cent of the total votes. Further, among the 533 Independent candidates, 37 won.

Twenty-seven parties, which is more than half of the number that contested, won no seats. Further, five parties won a single seat.