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1920 Indian general election

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The new Central Legislative Assembly, which was the lower chamber of the Imperial Legislative Council, was based in Delhi and had 104 elected seats, of which 66 were contested and 38 were reserved for Europeans elected through the Chambers of Commerce. For the upper chamber, the Council of State, 24 of the 34 seats were contested, whilst five were reserved for Muslims, three for Europeans, one for Sikhs, and one for the United Provinces. The Parliament was opened by the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn on 9 February 1921.

Alongside the national elections, there were also elections to 637 seats in provincial assemblies. Of these, 440 were contested, while 188 had a single candidate elected unopposed. Despite the calls by Mahatma Gandhi for a boycott of the elections, only six had no candidate. Within the provincial assemblies, 38 were reserved for European voters.

Electoral system

Single transferable vote (STV) was used on an experimental basis to elect three members of the Legislative Assembly of India for the European constituency of Bengal and to elect four members of the Council of State of India from the non-Muslim constituency of Madras. STV was also used to elect four members of the Legislative Council of Bengal for the European constituency of Bengal.

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