Why did the Election Commission think that it was not going to be easy to hold free and fair elections in the immediate post-Independence period?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Holding an election required delimitation.
Option (1) 25% of the eligible voters were literate. — Incorrect. Only 15 per cent of the eligible voters were literate.
Option (2) All women’s names were deleted from the electoral rolls ... — Incorrect. Only the entries of nearly 40 lakh women, listed as “wife of …” or “daughter of …”, were refused; the Commission ordered a revision if possible and deletion if necessary, not the deletion of all women’s names.
Option (3) Adult franchise was guaranteed on certain conditions ... — Incorrect. The Constitution granted fundamental rights and extended the right to vote to every citizen; this is universal adult franchise. Qualifications such as education or property were not attached to it, which is why the Election Commission had to plan the elections for 17 crore voters, most of whom could not read.
Option (4) Holding an election required delimitation. — Correct. Holding an election required delimitation of constituencies and the preparation of electoral rolls, and both these tasks took a lot of time.
Note: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2026 on 15-05-2026 (Slot 1).
NCERT (2025-26): “Challenge of building democracy … But the Election Commission discovered that it was not going to be easy to hold a free and fair election in a country of India’s size. Holding an election required delimitation or drawing the boundaries of the electoral constituencies. It also required preparing the electoral rolls, or the list of all the citizens eligible to vote. Both these tasks took a lot of time. When the first draft of the rolls was published, it was discovered that the names of nearly 40 lakh women were not recorded in the list. They were simply listed as ‘wife of …’ or ‘daughter of …’. The Election Commission refused to accept these entries and ordered a revision if possible and deletion if necessary. Preparing for the first general election was a mammoth exercise. No election on this scale had ever been conducted in the world before. At that time there were 17 crore eligible voters, who had to elect about 3,200 MLAs and 489 Members of Lok Sabha. Only 15 per cent of these eligible voters were literate. Therefore the Election Commission had to think of some special method of voting. The Election Commission trained over 3 lakh officers and polling staff to conduct the elections.” |