Indian Elections Trivia

The popular coinage "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" originated in 1967 when a Haryana legislator Gaya Lal changed his parties thrice in a single day

In 1957, CPI made history when it became the first Communist outfit in the world to take power through the ballot box( Kerala)

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections 230 parties fielded candidates and 40 parties recorded representation of one or more seats in the House.

In first general elections, many women in northern India were reluctant to register under their own names, wishing instead to identify themselves as A’s mother or B’s wife. However EC was reluctant to add their names as A's wife or B's mother, nearly 2.8 million eligible women voters who refused to cooperate with EC, or whose husbands would not permit them to do so, had to be struck off the rolls.


Panduranga Rao is India's first and only elected candidate to conduct a referendum on his work. Panduranga Rao was elected as Sarpanch of Allagadapa village (Nalgonda Dst, AP). After 3 years as sarpanch, he thought it is important to know his performance as sarpanch and conducted a referendum with help of few NGO's. Out of 1789 polled votes, 1710 supported him. He entered in Limca book of Records in 2006 as the first elected representative in India to hold a referendum on his tenure. Guinness World Records, is examining to enter his name. Hats off ,for upholding the spirit of democracy.


Over the years the number of candidates for lok sabha polls are increasing with the figure touching 10 contestants per constituency in 2004 compared to 3.83 in 1952.

In 2004 4,218 candidates lost deposits out of them 907 are from UP. Out of total contestants 77.6% candidates lost deposit

Out of 5,435 contestants in India only 1351 are from National parties and out of them 541 lost deposits

In 1952 elections India used multiple ballot boxes system. Each ballot box was marked with its party’s symbol, so that a voter could simply drop the paper he or she was given on entering the voting booth into the appropriate box

Total Registered parties in India - 1027,out of them 980 are not yet recognized. A few aspirants started parties with some innovative names like " Bharthiya prajatantrik shudh gandhiavadhi krishik dal"


In first Parliament elections 533 independents contested in election and 37 won in 2004 election 2385 independents contested and only 5 won

13th loksaba(1999) has seen highest number of women representatives in parliament - 49,where as in 1977 only 17 women candidates won

In only 5 elections 40 or more women representatives got elected in India

In five Indian states and one union territory, women voters outnumber men(Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Puducherry)

1996 Vajpayee Govt has highest number of ministers - 90

Just before 2004 elections 27 guys jumped into rival parties and contested on rival party symbol. out of them 20 lost in elections

In 1989 K.Ramakrishan was elected from Ankalapally parliamentary constituency by just 9 votes majority.

In 2004 elections 23 Mp's won by less than 5000 votes and 6 of them got less than 1000 votes majority

20,140 litres of violet ink will be used in Indian elections as EC decided to put ink from top of the nail to the bottom. Voters' ink was developed by the Delhi-based National Physical Laboratory, the ink's manufacturing has been licensed to Mysore Paints, a 72-year-old company owned by the Karnataka government. Only one man in the company knows the formula for making the ink - its quality control manager. And he does it behind a secure, locked door and alone.

Vote difference between congress and BJP in 2004 elections - 4% in 1998 it was just 0.4%

The highest voting percentage in any general elections has been 62.2% in 1957, the lowest was in 1967 when only 33% cast their vote

EC decided to give photo ID cards to all voters in year 1993

2009 General Elections would be the first time when the entire country, except the three States of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir, would be using the Photo Electoral Rolls

" `Ballot` and `bullet` are both derived from words for `balls`. The Greeks dropped a white ball when they favoured a candidate, and a black when they were against.

The word candidate comes from the Latin `candidatus` meaning `one clad in white` and most, till this day carry on with this white!"

A B Vajpayee is the only parliamentarian to be elected from four different states- UP, Gujarat, MP and Delhi!

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first used in Kerala. The highest number of candidates that an electronic voting machine can support is 64

IN 2009 elections Uttar Pradesh is not fielding a single serving or former Prime Minister from its sprawling constituencies.

The average age of MPs in the present Lok Sabha is 52.63 years

No ruling party has won re-election after serving a full term since Indira Gandhi led the Congress to victory in 1971

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P.S: Collected from various newspapers over a period of time

Click here to meet King maker of Indian politics Mr.Subba Rao