1971 Lok Sabha election: Serious drubbing for commuanlists and reactionaries in Bihar
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| Indira Gandhi Credit - Time magazine National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution |
NK SINGH
Both these rival fronts had failed to work out adjustments
to the extent they anticipated and avoid contest among the front parties.
At the time of dissolution of the Lok Sabha, the party
position in respect of Bihar was: Congress 25, Syndicate 8, SSP 5, CPI 5, Janta
Party 2, Jharkhand 2, PSP 1, Jan Sangh 1, BKD 1, Proutist Bloc 1, Shoshit Dal
1, Independent 1.
But the 1971 mid-term poll results marked a great change in
the Lok Sabha contingents from Bihar.
Though it was certain that the Congress would take a larger
share of the State's seats than any other political party and might improve its
position by a few more seats, nobody expected it to get more than 30 seats
where- as it has got 39 of the 47 it contested-securing 33.75 per cent of the total
votes polled.
The party, which had 25 seats in the dissolved house,
retained 23 and bagged 16 new seats in the process increasing its strength by
14 seats.
All the top Congress leaders Shri Jagjivan Ram, Shri
Binodanand Jha, Shri Baliram Bhagat, Shri Bhagwat Jha Azad, Shri Siddeshwar
Prasad, Shri A.P. Sharma and Shri Nawal Kishore Singh defeated their rivals by
big margins.
In Bihar there is practically no Congress organisation in
most districts and certainly not at the State level. It was the popularity of
the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, and the organisational skill of State leader
R.L.S. Yadav that has achieved the miracle.
Actually a vote cast for the cow and calf symbol was a vote
for Indira. The ‘remove poverty. slogan proved more attractive than the ‘remove
Indira’ slogan voiced by the grand Alliance.
Party | Contested | Won | Votes polled |
Congress (R) | 47 | 39 | 33.75 % |
Jana Sangh | 28 | 2 | 12.6 % |
Congress (O) | 24 | 3 | 11.57 % |
CPI | 17 | 5 | 9.98 % |
SSP | 28 | 2 | 9.52 % |
PSP | 12 | 0 | 0.96 % |
Janata | 4 | 0 | 0.96 % |
BKD | 13 | 0 | 0.95 % |
Jharkhand | 13 | 1 | 0.81 |
CPM | 4 | 0 | 0.81 % |
Other | 231 | 1 | 18.58 |
According to poll observers, Mrs Gandhi was able to poll most of the backward caste, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and Muslim votes besides a large chunk of women votes. Eleven of the fourteen backward castes MPs from Bihar belong to the Congress.
Five out of the seven constituencies reserved for these scheduled
castes were bagged by the party. It took 11 of the 13 seats falling within the
tribal belt of Chotanagpur.
By and large, the Muslims preferred to vote for the Congress,
this time. All the three Muslim candidates who have entered into the new Parliament
from Bihar fought on Congress tickets.
Grand Alliance Routed
The election results came as a blow to the Syndicate, Jan
Sangh, Swatantra, SSP and Janta Party combine, which was completely routed in
Bihar. Its previous strength of 16 was decreased to a mere 7.
Many a stalwart of the different opposition parties, who
were supposed to be invincible, suffered staggering defeats.
Syndicate's leader of the opposition in the dissolved Lok
Sabha, Ram Subhag Singh, the glamorous Mrs Tarakeshwari Sinha, the former Chief
Minister of Bihar and President of the BPCC(O), Shri K.B. Sahay, once hailed as
the coming man of Bihar, Shri Mahesh Prasad Sinha and SSP's astute
Parliamentarian Madhu Limaye -- all were knocked out.
The significant point is that all of them lost respectively
to little known Congress men.
The general cause of the defeat of the Grand Alliance and
its electoral allies was its reactionary and conservative image.
The Syndicate, which had eight seats in the dissolved house,
lost all of them but gained three new ones. This setback came in spite of the
party's contesting a large number of seats - 24. It could secure only 11.57 per
cent of the total votes polled.
Besides the anti-socialist and status quo image of the
Party, another factor responsible for the setback suffered by the Syndicate was
the strictures of the Aiyer Commission, which had enquired into corruption charges
against certain Congress leaders.
Another cause of the Syndicate defeat was its utter
dependence on upper caste Bhumihar, Rajput and Kayastha votes. Majority of the
Syndicate leaders belong to these three castes, who constitute only 13.22 per
cent of the population. The former are land-owning castes while the later have
dominated the professions and services for long.
But the caste appeal is a double-edged weapon. While it won the Syndicate feudal upper caste support it also alienated the backward and scheduled castes who are responsible for the 66.23 per cent of the State's votes.
Price for alignment
The SSP - the second biggest party in Bihar was perhaps the
worst sufferer. Its debacle in Bihar was poignant because it was the second
biggest party in the state Assembly and was the leading party in the SVD
Ministry .
The party, which had secured seven seats in 1967 (two of
them defected later) had fielded 28 candidates but only two managed to scrape
through - and these with only narrow margins. Its share of popular votes, too,
came down from 17.62 per cent in 1967 to 9.52 in 1971.
There are many causes behind the decline of the Samyukta
Socialists. Their alliance with the Syndicate- Sangh-Swatantra combine had
precipitated revolt in the party whose sitting MLAs fought the election
flouting the party mandate. It was a divided house.
As the SSP leader and police Minister of Bihar, Shri
Ramanand Tiwary has said, his party had to pay a heavy price for aligning with
the Jan Sangh and the Syndicate. He confessed that in the process it had lost
support of the poor and the downtrodden backwards, Harijans, Muslims and women,
who as the poll results showed, had gone over to the Congress.
One of the most important causes for the setback suffered by
the SSP -- which in fact is neither samyukta, nor socialist, nor a party -- is its aggressive 'backwardism', a factor
that has caused alarm in the high caste circles.
Just as the upper casteism of the Syndicate has alienated
the backward and lower castes, the SSP's "backwardism” has isolated it
from the upper castes. On the other hand, most of the backward and scheduled
caste votes, on which the SSP was counting till now, went over to the Congress.
Jana Sangh
The performance of the Jan Sangh has belied hopes of its
followers and admirers.
Though the party had been increasing its strength over the
years in respect of popular votes and representation in the Assembly, it
suffered a setback when its percentage of popular votes came down from 15.62
per cent in 1969 to 12.6 per cent in 1971.
However, despite the losses suffered by the party in respect
of popular votes-as it often happens in parliamentary politics it was able to
increase its number of seats from one (1967) to two.
The Jan Sangh lost its old seat of Banka. President of the
Bihar JS Shri Kailashpati Mishra lost the prestigious seat of Patna to the CPI
by a big margin.
Dr Satyanarayan (nobody knows, from where he has been provided
a doctorate), a man of colourful personality, and a habitual defector, who
chose the Jan Sangh in 1971 -- people may remember him as the great man who
claimed before the Khosla Commission that he had been in constant touch with
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose -- forfeited his security deposit in Jamshedpur.
Despite its tricks to divide the Muslim votes and propagate
hatred against the minority community, the Jan Sangh had a trouncing defeat in
Siwan .The notorious Sanghi, Shri Rudra Pratap Sarangi was knocked out in
Ranchi, again a prestige seat.
The communal appeal was, however, by and large rejected.
Nothing illustrates it better than the result from the Chotanagpur tribal belt
which has 13 seats in the Lok Sabha.
By rousing anti-Muslim and anti-Christian feelings, the
Sangh had penetrated into the tribal areas and secured some seats in the
Assembly in 1969 and one seat in Parliament in 1967.
On this occasion it fielded candidates from Chotanagpur but
drew blank. The 1969 mid-term poll success of the JS in this region can be
attributed to the communal massacre in Ranchi.
Congress makes mistakes
Besides its reactionary image, another reason for the
setback suffered the Sangh, was the fact that no major communal riot took place
in the State during 1969-71. Whatever gains the party made, was due to the
faulty election machinery of the Congress.
It is a bitter truth that Shri Suresh Kumar was given a
Congress ticket from Gaya not because of his own personality. He lost to the
Jan Sangh. The same story was repeated in Katihar where the Congress had again
fielded a faulty candidate, Shri Sita Ram Kesari -- who, reportedly, is on
close terms with Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain. Shri Kesari, too, lost to the Jan
Sangh.
The Sangh had also some advantages due to the emergence of
the Muslim League on the poll scene, which in some cases - led to a
retrogressive polarization. The League had fielded nine candidates, and as
expected, all of them fared badly.
An interesting feature of the election trends in Bihar was
that the Congress was able to smash the 20-year old electoral supremacy of the
Janta Party -- an electoral ally of the Grand Alliance -- in Hazaribagh
district. Losing all the four seats, it contested, to the Congress; the Janta
Party was completely wiped out.
Other Parties
Among the other parties, the CPI was able to maintain its
strength of five in the dissolved house by securing about 9.98 per cent of the
popular votes.
The A.I. Jharkhand party (Horo faction)-an electoral ally of
the Congress and the Bagun Sumbrai faction of the Jharkhand party an ally of
the Grand Alliance managed to maintain one seat each in the dissolved Lok
Sabha.
Another feature of the midterm poll in Bihar was that in a
confrontation between the Congress-led combination and the Grand Alliance, the
smaller parties were routed.
The PSP, the Proutist Bloc, the BKD and the Shoshit Dal,
which had one nominee each, were wiped out altogether .So also one Independent.
The smaller and regional parties like the CPM, the Socialist
Party, the Forward Bloc, the Swatantra, the Hul Jharkhand, etc., made little
impression on the voters. Of the 421 candidates seeking election from the 53
constituencies in Bihar, 293 forfeited their security deposits.
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| Secular Democracy June 1971 |
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