Democrats all over the world have good reasons to celebrate the significance of the sixteenth Lok Sabha elections in India. The level of participation – at 66.4 per cent, the highest ever since the introduction of universal suffrage (see table 1) – puts India, the world’s largest democracy, in the league of high participation countries. The fact that despite a long, bruising campaign, the election itself was generally peaceful, orderly, free and fair is a testimony to inner strength and resilience of democracy in India. This article provides a brief glance into the electoral process and the deepening of democracy in India, and makes a case for some electoral reforms that can reinforce democratic consolidation. Elections and the deepening of democracy in India. Universal adult franchise with first-past-the-post electoral rules was first introduced in the general election of 1952, the first after Independence. All political parties including communists and the right wing Jan Sangh were permitted to participate in the election. Thanks to the extension of suffrage, the electorate rapidly expanded, bringing into the political arena a large number of voters with no previous experience of electoral participation.