Which of the following was a challenge discovered by Election Commission for conducting elections in India?

Both options 1 and 2

Indian Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and signed on 24 January 1950. On 26 January 1950, the Indian constitution came into effect. During this time, the country was under the rule of an interim government.  The next step was to establish the first democratically elected government. The Constitution provided the guidelines, but the necessary machinery had to be put in place. So, in January 1950, the Election Commission of India was established. Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. The first general elections in the country were anticipated to take place in 1950 itself.

However, the Election Commission soon encountered the immense challenge of conducting a free and fair election in a country as vast as India. The process of holding elections involved delimitation, which meant defining the boundaries of electoral constituencies. Additionally, the preparation of electoral rolls, the comprehensive list of eligible voters, was a time-consuming task. When the first draft of the rolls was published, it revealed that the names of approximately 40 lakh women were not properly recorded. They were merely identified as "wife of..." or "daughter of...". Refusing to accept such entries, the Election Commission ordered a revision and deletion where necessary.

Preparing for the inaugural general election was an enormous undertaking. Never before had an election of this magnitude been conducted anywhere in the world. At that time, there were 17 crore eligible voters who had the responsibility of electing approximately 3,200 MLAs and 489 Members of the Lok Sabha. Merely 15 percent of these eligible voters were literate, which necessitated the Election Commission to devise a special voting method. Over 3 lakh officers and polling staff underwent training to ensure the smooth execution of the elections.