Which one of the following electoral system was adopted for general elections by India?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → First-past-the-post system
India adopted the first-past-the-post method, in which the party that gets more votes than others tends to get much more than its proportional share of seats; this is why the Congress won 74 per cent of the seats with 45 per cent of the votes in 1952.
NCERT (2026-27): “Congress dominance in the first three general elections … The extent of the victory of the Congress was artificially boosted by our electoral system. The Congress won three out of every four seats but it did not get even half of the votes. In 1952, for example, the Congress obtained 45 per cent of the total votes. But it managed to win 74 per cent of the seats. The Socialist Party, the second largest party in terms of votes, secured more than 10 per cent of the votes all over the country. But it could not even win three per cent of the seats. How did this happen? For this, you need to recall the discussion about the first-past-the-post method in your textbook, Indian Constitution at Work last year. In this system of election, that has been adopted in our country, the party that gets more votes than others tends to get much more than its proportional share. That is exactly what worked in favour of the Congress.…” |