1962 Indian general election

← 1957 19–25 February 1962 1967 →
← outgoing members elected members →
494 of the 508 seats in the Lok Sabha 248 seats needed for a majority
Registered	216,361,569
Turnout	55.42% ( 9.98 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jawaharlal Nehru Shripad Amrit Dange C. Rajagopalachari Party INC CPI SWA Last election 47.78%, 371 seats 8.92%, 27 seats New Seats won 361 29 18 Seat change 10 2 New Popular vote 51,509,084 11,450,037 9,085,252 Percentage 44.72% 9.94% 7.89% Swing 3.06pp 1.02pp New   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Deendayal Upadhyaya Jayaprakash Narayan Party ABJS PSP Last election 5.97%, 4 seats 10.41%, 19 seats Seats won 14 12 Seat change 10 7 Popular vote 7,415,170 7,848,345 Percentage 6.44% 6.81% Swing 0.47pp 3.6pp
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Jawaharlal Nehru INC Prime Minister after election Jawaharlal Nehru INC

General elections were held in India between 19 and 25 February 1962 to elect members of the third Lok Sabha. Unlike the previous two elections, each constituency elected a single member.^[1]

Jawaharlal Nehru won another landslide victory in his third and final election campaign. The Indian National Congress received 44.7% of the vote and won 361 of the 494 elected seats. This was only slightly lower than in the previous two elections and they still held over 70% of the seats in the Lok Sabha.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Indian National Congress	51,509,084	44.72	361	–10
	Communist Party of India	11,450,037	9.94	29	+2
	Swatantra Party	9,085,252	7.89	18	New
	Praja Socialist Party	7,848,345	6.81	12	–7
	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	7,415,170	6.44	14	+10
	Republican Party of India	3,255,985	2.83	3	New
	Socialist Party	3,099,397	2.69	6	New
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	2,315,610	2.01	7	New
	Shiromani Akali Dal	829,129	0.72	3	New
	All India Forward Bloc	826,588	0.72	2	0
	Hindu Mahasabha	747,861	0.65	1	0
	Peasants and Workers Party of India	703,582	0.61	0	–4
	Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad	688,990	0.60	2	+2
	Jharkhand Party	467,338	0.41	3	–3
	Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)	451,717	0.39	2	+2
	Indian Union Muslim League	417,761	0.36	2	New
	All India Ganatantra Parishad	342,970	0.30	4	–3
	Lok Sewak Sangh	281,755	0.24	2	New
	Nutan Maha Gujarat Janata Parishad	195,812	0.17	1	New
	Haryana Lok Samiti	118,667	0.10	1	New
	Tamil National Party	92,389	0.08	0	New
	All Party Hill Leaders Conference	91,850	0.08	1	New
	Socialist Labour Party	80,227	0.07	0	New
	Revolutionary Socialist Party (RCP)	60,813	0.05	0	New
	Gorkha League	46,127	0.04	0	New
	Eastern Indian Tribal Union	12,574	0.01	0	New
	We Tamil	11,372	0.01	0	New
	Independents	12,722,488	11.05	20	–22
Appointed members[a]				14	+3
Total		115,168,890	100.00	508	+3
Valid votes		115,168,890	96.05
Invalid/blank votes		4,735,394	3.95
Total votes		119,904,284	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		216,361,569	55.42

State wise

Andhra Pradesh

Party		Seats			Popular vote
		Contested	Won	+/−	Votes	%	±pp
	Indian National Congress	43	34	4	57,11,263	47.96%	3.51%
	Communist Party of India	20	7	5	25,05,619	21.04%	9.03%
	Swatantra Party	28	1	1	17,75,495	14.91%	New
	Independents	44	1	1	16,53,436	13.89%	5.37%
Total		43			1,19,08,021

Assam

Party		Seats			Popular vote
		Contested	Won	+/−	Votes	%	±pp
	Indian National Congress	12	9	4	57,11,263	45.16%	6.52%
	Praja Socialist Party	8	2		4,78,099	19.16%	0.8%
	All Party Hill Leaders Conference	1	1	New	91,850	3.68%	New
	Communist Party of India	4	0	5	1,76,098	7.06%	3.19%
	Independents	13	0	1	5,16,793	20.71%	2.6%
Total		12			24,95,311

Bihar

Party		Seats			Popular vote
		Contested	Won	+/−	Votes	%	±pp
	Indian National Congress	53	39	2	43,65,148	43.89%	0.58%
	Praja Socialist Party	32	2		12,62,106	12.69%	8.95%
	Swatantra Party	43	7	New	18,11.170	18.21%	New
	Communist Party of India	16	1	5	6,34,516	6.38%	1.36%
	Independents	34	0	1	4,93,330	4.96%	10.88%
Total		53			99,46,244

Gujrat

• Gujrat was formed a new state in 1961 after separation from Bombay state.

Madras

Party		Seats			Popular vote
		Contested	Won	+/−	Votes	%	±pp
	Indian National Congress	41	31		56,23,013	45.26	1.26%
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	18	7	7	23,15,610	18.64	New
	Communist Party of India	14	2		12,72,313	10.24	0.18%
	Swatantra Party	16	0	New	13,00,526	10.47	New
	Independents	46	0	8	9,33,150	7.51	32.26%
Total		41			1,24,24,036

By-elections

In 1963 a by-election was held for the Bilaspur Lok Sabha seat, which was at the time in Madhya Pradesh. The election was won by the Indian National Congress candidate C. Singh, with 86,229 votes, against M. L. Shukla of Jana Sangh with 54,156 votes.^[2] This by-election was needed because the original election for this seat was declared void by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which judged that the nomination papers of one of the candidates, Bashir Ahmed Qureshi, "was improperly and illegally rejected by the Returning Officer".^[3]