Page 69 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Democracy Marches Ahead Chapter 3

To remedy the situa on, he had some novel sugges ons.
First, to na onalise the elec ons. Rajaji felt that the na on
would save tens of millions of wasteful expenditure in the
elec on campaign (meant to woo voters to booth) if
polling opera ons were conducted by the
administra on/Elec on Commission like Census
opera on from door-to-door with proper safeguards.
Second, he recommended banning corporate dona ons to
party funds. Third, elec ons should be held under
President’s Rule rather than the ruling party's government.

Everest legend Tenzing Norgay presenting his identity slip,
Town Hall, Darjeeling, March 1957

The Commission was be er equipped to conduct the
Second General Elec ons (1957). Except in some snow-
clad cons tuencies in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab hills,
the poll was completed within 19 days between February
24 and March 14, 1957 in the rest of India. During 1951-
52, the same process had taken a total of 120 days.
Sample ballot paper

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