If you thought Indian politics is complicated, there was a time when it was even more so. In the first two elections after independence, voters in one of every five parliamentary seats in the country had had to choose not just one MP to represent them, but two. India’s first general election in 1951-52 were held in 400 constituencies across 26 states. Of these, 314 constituencies elected a single MP each, but 86 elected two – one each from the general and Scheduled Caste category.
One constituency in West Bengal, North Bengal, even elected three MPs.
These multi-seat constituencies were created to reserve space for deprived sections – Dalits and tribal communities. It was the first such affirmative action measure, in terms of political representation, in any major democracy. This system of multi-seat constituencies was a crucial part of the first two Indian general elections in 1951-52 and 1957.
It was abolished in 1961, when it was replaced by separate general and reserved seats (for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes).
Table 1: The shift from 2-MP to single MP seats (1951-1962)
| Year | Parliamentary Constituencies | 1-seat, general | 2-seat, general | SC seats- separate | ST seats-separate | Total seats |
| 1951-52 | 400 | 306 | 86 | - | 8 | 489 |
| 1957 | 403 | 296 | 91 | - | 16 | 494 |
| 1962 | 494 | 385 | - | 79 | 30 | 494 |
In 1951, the highest number of 2-seat constituencies were in Uttar Pradesh (17), Madras (13), Bihar (11) and Bombay (8). In 1957, after the reorganisation of states (when several new states were created and or carved out of older ones on linguistic lines), the total number of Lok Sabha seats was reduced to 494. The pecking order of states with the highest 2-seat constituencies then changed to UP (18), Andhra Pradesh (8), Bihar (8), West Bengal (8), Bombay (8) and Madras (7).
Table 1: How Lok Sabha was organised in India’s first election (1951-52): 1-seat, 2-seat and 3-party seats state-wise
| S. No | State | Parliamentary Constituencies | 1-seat, general | 2-seat, general | SC seats- separate | ST seats-separate | Total seats |
| 1. | Assam | 10 | 8 | 2 | - | 8 | 12 |
| 2. | Bihar | 44 | 31 | 11 | - | 2 | 55 |
| 3. | Bombay | 37 | 29 | 8 | - | - | 45 |
| 4. | Madhya Pradesh | 23 | 16 | 6 | - | 1 | 29 |
| 5. | Madras | 62 | 49 | 13 | - | - | 75 |
| 6. | Orissa | 16 | 9 | 4 | - | 3 | 20 |
| 7. | Punjab | 15 | 12 | 3 | - | - | 18 |
| 8. | Uttar Pradesh | 69 | 52 | 17 | - | - | 86 |
| 9. | West Bengal | 25 | 19 | 6 | - | - | 34 |
| 10. | Hyderabad | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | - | 25 |
| 11. | Madhya Bharat | 9 | 6 | 2 | - | 1 | 11 |
| 12. | Mysore | 9 | 7 | 2 | - | - | 11 |
| 13. | Patiala and East Punjab States Union | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | - | 5 |
| 14. | Rajasthan | 18 | 15 | 2 | - | 1 | 20 |
| 15. | Saurashtra | 6 | 6 | - | - | - | 6 |
| 16. | Travancore Cochin | 11 | 10 | 1 | - | - | 12 |
| 17. | Ajmer | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | 2 |
| 18. | Bhopal | 2 | 2 | -- | - | - | 2 |
| 19. | Bilaspur | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | 1 |
| 20. | Coorg | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| 21. | Delhi | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 4 |
| 22. | Himachal Pradesh | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 3 |
| 23. | Kutch | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | 2 |
| 24. | Manipur | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | 2 |
| 25. | Tripura | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | 2 |
| 26. | Vindhya Pradesh | 4 | 2 | 2 | - | - | 6 |
| 27. | Total | 400 | 306 | 86 | - | 8 | 489 |
Not surprisingly, this system proved cumbersome and confusing. The Two-Member Constituencies (Abolition) Act of 1961 ended it. The 1962 national elections were the first with our current system of single and separate general, SC and ST seats. The 494-member Lok Sabha of 1962 was reorganised into 385 general, 79 SC and 30 ST seats.
The current Lok Sabha is about 10 percent bigger than that one with 543 seats- of which 84 are reserved SC seats and 47 reserved ST seats.
Few remember the two-seat parliamentary constituencies from the first decade of independent India now. Yet, they were a fascinating experiment in affirmative action and political choices in the early years of the world’s largest democracy.
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