2024-04-21 00:31:51
New Delhi: The names of women in the voter list are so-and-so’s wife, so-and-so’s mother or so-and-so’s daughter…you may find it very strange to read this, but during the first general elections of the country, women’s names were not directly written in the voter list. Women have been introduced in a similar manner in the male-dominated society. But, the efforts of one person changed this picture. He was the country’s first Election Commissioner Sukumar Sen, who may have been Sukumar in name but was very strict in his decisions.
This incident happened when the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950. At that time the interim government was running. In such a situation, it was thought that the country should be governed by a democratically elected government. People kept believing that this work was only for a few months. However, the formation of the new government was not so easy. In January 1950, the Election Commission was formed and the promising Sukumar Sen was given the command of the country’s first Election Commissioner.
Sukumar Sen worked hard day and night to successfully conduct the first general elections. file photo
Names of 40 lakh women could not be recorded in the first draft of the voting list.
Sukumar Sen faced many big challenges, from nomination of constituencies to preparation of voter list. Finally, after a lot of hard work, when the first draft of the voter list was published, it was found that the names of 40 lakh women were left out of being registered in it. These women were recorded as the daughters of so and so or the wives of so and so. Before independence, women’s names were written in a similar manner. But, this was independent India. Sukumar Sen was adamant and said that women will be known by their own names only. Since then, the names of women voters became their identity in the general elections.
At the time of independence, there were 17 crore voters in the country, Sen made the voters powerful.
At the time of independence, there were 17 crore voters in the country, which today has increased to around 98 crore. The Election Commission played an important role in traveling such a long distance. More than this, honest and determined election commissioners like Sukumar Sen played a greater role. Sukumar Sen took the initiative to empower the voters. 17 crore voters had to elect 3200 MLAs and 489 MPs for the Lok Sabha. Only 17 percent of these voters were literate. In such a situation, the Election Commission had to invent special methods of voting. The Commission trained more than 3 lakh officers and election workers to conduct the elections.
When the British made fun of him, Sen gave a befitting reply.
The British would make fun of Sukumar Sen’s efforts and say that in the future the world will see the absurd drama of millions of illiterate people voting. Someone said that the idea of having universal voting rights in India was not good, because at that time women did not have voting rights in many countries of Europe and even in America, which called itself a great representative of democracy. But Sukumar Sen did not care about the ridicule of the people nor did he make any compromise to conduct successful elections.
Ballot box for every candidate in the first general election
In the first general election, Sukumar Sen decided that in every polling station, one ballot box would be kept for each candidate and the candidate’s election symbol would be printed on the ballot box. Every voter will be given a blank ballot paper, which he will put in the ballot box of the candidate of his choice. 20 lakh steel boxes were used for this work. To register the election symbol and other details, the ballot box had to be first rubbed with a piece of glued paper or brick. This method was changed after the first two elections. Now the name of each candidate had to be stamped on the ballot paper. This method continued to be adopted for the next 40 years. The Commission started using EVMs in the late 90s and by 2004, EVMs were being used across the country.
It took 6 months to conduct elections and count votes.
Sukumar Sen finally conducted the elections from October 1951 to February 1952 after all the preparations. This is called the election of 1952, because most of the elections took place in 1952. The election campaign, voting and counting took 6 months. People participated enthusiastically in this election. More than 50 percent of the total voters cast their votes. This election with universal voting rights silenced the critics. This message went to the whole world that India had successfully conducted such a big election. The elections of 1952 proved to be a milestone in the history of democracy all over the world.