12 Class Political Science – II Chapter 2 Era of One party Dominance Notes
| Textbook | NCERT |
| Class | Class 12 |
| Subject | Political Science 2nd book |
| Chapter | Chapter 2 |
| Chapter Name | Era of One party Dominance |
| Category | Political Science |
| Medium | English |
Class 12 political science chapter 2 Era of one party dominance notes here we will be learn about first three general elections, Nature of Congress dominance, the coalition nature of Congress, the main opposition party.
Meaning of the Era of one-party dominance : –
🔹 After independence, only the Congress Party remained in power. It got a huge majority in the first general elections of 1952, second in 1957 and third in 1967. Other parties were so weak that they could not compete with Congress and come to power. This situation is called the Era of one-party dominance.
One Party System : –
🔹 If there is only one party in a country and all the members of exercising governing power are members of this same political party, then the party system there is called One Party System.
🔹The party system of a country is called a one-party system when there : –
- A particular party has the most influence and its grip on government is strong.
- Other political parties exist, but their power is negligible compared to that of a particular party.
- A particular party has influence in the entire country and from this point of view, other parties are very backward.
Multi-Party System : –
🔹Multi-party system is a political system in which many political parties participate in elections at the national level and all the parties have the ability to control government departments either separately or in the form of a coalition.
Democracy : –
🔹 That system of governance in which the people themselves rule directly or indirectly through their representatives keeping in mind the interest of the entire public. It is called democracy.
Why is democracy called representative government?
🔹 In this, the people hand over their power to their elected representatives who protect the interests of their constituents and are accountable to them.
Formation of Election Commission in India and first Chief Election Commissioner and its functions : –
- Formation : – January 1950
- First Chief Election Commissioner : – Sukumar Sen
🔹 The Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950. Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner of India. The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional body.
🔹 It is functioning under Article 324 of the Constitution. The Commission makes arrangements for elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Legislative Assemblies, Legislative Councils, the post of President and Vice President.
Challenges of Election Commission for First general election : –
🔹 Conducting elections in the country was no less than a challenge, it was because
- To conduct free and fair elections.
- Demarcation of electoral constituencies.
- Obstacles in the way of making voter list.
- To train officials and election personnel.
- Thinking about special method of voting due to low literacy.
- Only 15 percent of the people in the country were educated.
- Most of the country’s population was suffering from poverty.
- Lack of means of communication and technology.
- 3200 MLAs and 489 Parliaments were to be elected by 17 crore voters.
Voting methods and changes in them : –
🔹 In the system adopted after the first two general elections, the ballot paper carried the names and symbols of all the candidates and the voter was required to put a stamp on the name of the candidate they wanted to vote for. This method worked for nearly forty years.
🔹 Towards the end of 1990s the Election Commission started using the EVM. By 2004 the entire country had shifted to the EVM.
What is EVM ?
🔹 The term EVM stands for Electronic Voting Machine. It is an electronic device to record voters’ preferences. A voting machine for recording the performance of voters on an electronic device used by the electoral process which is called Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
First Past the Post System : –
🔹 This is a simple majority system in which the candidate with the highest number of votes is declared elected.
First general election of India (1952) : –
🔹 The first general elections were held from October 1951 to February 1952. At that time there were 17 crore eligible voters, who had to elect about 3,200 MLAs and 489 Members of Lok Sabha. 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.
Opinion about first election : –
🔹 An Indian editor called it “the biggest gamble in history”.
🔹 Organiser, a magazine, wrote that Jawaharlal Nehru “would live to confess the failure of universal adult franchise in India”.
🔹 A British member of the Indian Civil Service claimed that “a future and more enlightened age will view with astonishment the absurd farce of recording the votes of millions of illiterate people”.
Results of the first general election (1952) : –
- Democracy was successfully established in India.
- People enthusiastically participated in the election
- There was a tough contest between the candidates in the election, the losing candidates also declared the result correct.
- The Indian people carried out this election experiment well and all the critics were silenced.
- In the elections, Congress won 364 seats and emerged as the single largest party.
- The second largest party was the Communist Party of India which won 16 seats.
- Jawahar Lal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of the country.
India’s first general election of 1952 a landmark in the history of democracy all over the world : –
🔹 It took 6 months for the campaigning, polling and counting to be completed.
🔹 Elections were competitive- there were on an average more than 4 candidates for each seat.
🔹 The level of participation was encouraging-more than half the eligible voters turned out to vote on the day of elections.
🔹 When the results were declared, these were accepted as fair even by the losers.
🔹 The Hindustan Times claimed that there is universal agreement that the Indian people have conducted themselves admirably in the largest experiment in democratic elections in the history of the world’.
🔹 It was no longer possible to argue that the democratic elections could not be held in conditions of poverty or lack of education.
Why Indian editor called the UAF ( Universal Adult Franchise ) as the biggest “gamble in history”.
- Till then democracy has existed only in rich countries, mainly Europe and America, were nearly everyone was literate.
- By that time many countries in Europe had not given voting rights to all women.
- Huge number of voters.
- Poor and illiterate voters.
- Lack of resources for elections.
- Lack of trained election personnel.
Second General Election 1957 : –
🔹 Second general elections were held in India in 1957. This time also the situation was similar to the last time and Congress won the elections comfortably in almost all places. Congress got 371 seats in the Lok Sabha.
🔹 Jawahar Lal Nehru became the Prime Minister of India for the second time but the influence of the Communist Party was visible in Kerala and Congress could not form the government in Kerala.
Communist victory in Kerala : –
🔹 As early as in 1957, the Congress party had the bitter taste of defeat in Kerala. In the assembly elections held in March 1957, the Communist Party won the largest number of seats in the Kerala legislature. The party won 60 of the 126 seats and had the support of five independents.
🔹 The governor invited E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the leader of the Communist legislature party, to form the ministry. For the first time in the world, a Communist party government had come to power through democratic elections.
Misuse of Section 356 of the Constitution : –
🔹 On losing power in the State, the Congress party began a ‘liberation struggle’ against the elected government. The CPI had come to power on the promise of carrying out radical and progressive policy measures.
🔹 In 1959 the Congress government at the Centre dismissed the Communist government in Kerala under Article 356 of the Constitution. This decision proved very controversial and was widely cited as the first instance of the misuse of constitutional emergency powers.