Chapter - 4 Our Pa~ty dominance in India and in other countries

Parties and Party System in India I. In most of the cases the dominance of one party was ensured by compromising
democracy.
Our constitution was signed and adopted on 26 November 1949, and came
into effect on 26th Ja~a 1950. At that time the country was being ruled by an In,some countries like China ,Cuba and Syria the constitution permits only a
7,. _
interim government. it was now necessary to form the first democratically single party to rule the country.
elected government of the country .The election commission of India was sci J, . l. While in some other like Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt are effectively one party
up in January 1950 and Sukumar Sen became the first chief election t States due to legal and military measures/reasons.
commissioner.
. ( krnsons of Congr~ss Dominance in the first three General Election:
Challenges of Election Commission : ~.
Important role in the National Movement.
To hold a free and fair election.
• Only party to have an organisation ~pread all over the country.
Drawing the boundaries of the electoral constituencies .
Most popular and charismatic leaders.
Preparing the electoral roll .
• The coalitional nature of the Congress party tolerated and encouraged various
Training of over 300000 office~s and polling staff to cond_uct the elections. factions.

To Think about a different technique of voting suitable for illiterate voters. I%() as Dangerous Decade
The first general elections were held from October 1951 to February 1952. • Unresolved Problems like:
This election is referred to as the 19 52 elections since most parts of the country
• Poverty
voted in January 1952
, Inequality
Congress System
• Communal and regional divisions
There was the dominance of Indian National Congress in first three genernl
elections i.e, 1952, 1957 and 1962. This was was known as Congress System. , The decade is also called dangerous because during this time India faced two
Congress acted both as the ruling party as well as the opposition. Therefore. >i Wars, 1962(lndia China War) and 1965 (India Pakistan War)
This period of Indian politics has been described as the "CONGRESS
1 , Could lead to the failure of the democratic project or even the distintergration
SYSTEM". of the country
 I
T' Sharp rise in military expenditure,
Challenges of Political Succession
After the death ~f Jawaharlal Nehru i~ May 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri,
1966, died in Tasbkc111
wl,, f' Drop in industrial production and exports

was Pnme Mm1ster of the country till January

,11
' Widespread Drought in the country,
January 10, 1966. .
h111rth General Election 1967 Known as Political Earthquake
After the death of Shastri, the struggle for political successor between
M111 111p
•
s has
Desai and Indira Gandhi started, and Indira Gandhi was made the Pri111: Opposition parties started mobilizing the public. The result of election
because the Congres s lost the election
Minister. been termed as political earthquake
for the first time, with lowest tally of seats received and share of votes
Minister dc~pl!,
• . The Syndicate supported Indira Gandhi to become the Prime
the Syndical(' 1, 1, adesh,
being inexperienced, assuming that she would depend on Congress could not form government in 9 states i.e.- UttarPr
Kerala and
direction Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, Madras, West Bengal. Orissa. Punjab,
f.'
n of po11 f1 'i ; Haryana.
• Despite Intense competition for leadership, a peaceful transitio
was seen as a sign of maturity of India's democracy. 'iplit in the Congress
r from 1964 to I %r11
• During the tenure of Lal Bahadur Shastri, (Prime Ministe supported
The differences between Syndicate and Indira and Indira Gandhi
the country faced two challenges: the victory of VV G:ri and the
candidates in the presidential election With
Reddy, the Congres s bad
• Indo-Pak War of 1965 defeat of Congress's official candidate N. Sanjeeva
divided into
to face the challenge of partition in 1969 and the Congress got
• Food Crisis ( Monsoo n failure,)
Congress(O) and Congress(R)
challcn )'t
Shastri ji gave the slogan of "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" to face these
Pakistan 111 I'onclusion
The Tashkent Agreement was signed between India and
Tashke nt Agreem ent was signed l,1
Tashkent,( Soviet Union) in 1966. The base and
Khan on brli;1II In the 1971 elections, Indira Gandhi reclaimed the lost land of her
Lal Bahadur Shastri on behalf ofindia and Mohammed Ayub
re-established the Congress with the slogan "Remove Poverty"
of Pakistan.
Socialist leader Dr. Ram Manohar.Lohia named this strategy
as NON
Grave Economic Crisis Due fo : CONGRESS. Non-Congress parties came together in the states after
the 1967
ve party,(SVD) The governm ent
• Failure of Monsoon. elections, Congress formed a united legislati
of the .(SVD) formed in Punjab was called Popular United Front.
• Depletion of foreign exchange reserves

• A decline in Agricultural production 181

Political Science ~.X1l
 v, u MP
Dcl'«tion • fndir.1(,;1ndhi openly Ciilled for a C<Jrt cwu 1

and MLA from the Congress should be free ro vote {he way they wanted
in
r p,111 ,
When a puMk 1\'Pl\'l-\'ntatiw wins the election symbol of a particula this election
other pnrty leaving that part, it is callt •I
and after winning thl' ekction joins
andidate
def~·tion. • This ulitmetely resulted rn the victory of VV Gu( the independent
the official Congre candidate.
and the defeat of Sanjeeva Reddy
Ga) a L3.l.. a Congress MIA from Haryana, changed the party three
times 11, 1
the party
fortnight after the elections of 1967. This became related to the conccpl 111 • The defeat of the official Congress candidate formalized the split m
defections.
/\'! I Indira Gandhi projected the split as an ideological divide between
f.Ocialists
The influential and powerful leaders in the Congress were called SYNDIC •
and conservatives, between the pre poor and the pro nch.
I NAME OF STATE
S.KO I LEADERS OF SYNDICATE
SPLIT L'i THE CONGRESS
L K.Kamraj Madras
( CONGREss)
2. SK Patil Bombay city

3. - KS Nijalingappa Mysore(Karnataka)

4. Atulya Ghosh West Bengal

CONGRES~ 'O' CONGRESS 'R'
5. N.Sanjiv Reddy Andhra Pradesh
I (Syndicate supported (Indira supponed
These leaders had control over the party's organization group)
group)
Presidential Election 1969 lh•quisitionist; Organisation
fell vacn111
• Following Dr Zakir Hussain death the post of President of India after
• The integration of the princely states was preceded b) an assun.mce that
that year. allowed to
the dissolution of princely rule the then rulers families would be
ent
• Despite Mrs Gandhi's reservations ,the Syndicate managed to norninal
c h1•1 retain certain private property and given a grant in heredH) or governm
l of the
longtime opponent the then speaker of the Lok Sabha N. Sanjccv a Reddy a~ allowance measured on the basis of the extent, revenue and potentia
tial elections. merging state. This grant was called PRlVY PURSE.
the official Congress candidate for the ensuring presiden
a 10
• Indira Gandhi retaliated by encouraging th.e then vice president
VY Glri 111 To make up for the harm done in 1967 elections, Indira Gandhi adopted
file his nomination as an independent candidate. point program which includc'tl

183 Political Science -XII

182
 r,toration of Congress
• Nationalization of 14 leading private banks,

• Abolition of the privy purse, • The party occupied a sim ilar position in terms of its popularity as in the past
but it was a different ki nd of a party.
• Government distribution of food products and
• H relied entirely on the popularity of the supreme leader.
• Land reforms etc.
• ft had a somewhat weak organisational structure.
1971 Election and Restoration of Congress Party
• This Congress party now did not have many factions thus it could not
In 197 l, all the major non communist, non Congress opposition parties forn 11,I accommodate all kinds of opinions and interests while it won elections.
an electoral alliance known as the GRAND ALLIANCE.
• It depended more on some social 'groups: the poor ,the women the dalits,
The SSP, PSP ,Bhartiya Jan Sangh, Swatantra party and the Bhartiya Ki a,,,, ~, / , Adivasis and the minorities.
Dal came togeth~r under this umbrella. ·f C h hd d

_The ruling party had an alliance with the CPI.

J ·: •
This was a new, ongress t at a emerge .

j , Thus Indira Gandhi restored the Congress system by changing the nature of
Indira Gandhi put forward a positive program captured in the fa mous slo)ff1h ~ _ the Congress system itself.
Garibi Hatao (remove poverty ). · ).,.,

She focused on the growth of the public sector, the imposition of a ceilin/1 ,.,.
f hlllfics of 'Garibi Hatao' _
rural land holdings and urban property, removal of disparities in inconw 111J,t • Through 'Garibi Hatao' Indira Gandhi tried to generate a support base among
opportunity and abolition of princely p1ivileges. the disadvantaged especially among the landless labourers, Dalits and adivasis,
minorities, women and the unemployed youth.
1971 Election results :
• The slogan of garibi hatad and the programs that followed it were part of
/ Name of Party/ Coalition I Number of Seats I Indira Gandhi's political strategy of building an independent nation wide
ICongress R and CPI . 375 I political support base.

Coalition 352 Congress R+23 CPI As a result Indira Gandhi got a complete majority in 1971 elections.
Congress 0 16
The Congress-R and CPI alliance won more seats and votes than the Congress
j The Grand Alliance Less than 40 had ever won in the first four general elections.

185 Political Science-XII

84
 Two Party System months.

• Io January 1977 the major opposilion parties came together and l'Cll 1w1I • • Fresh L2k Sabha elections were held in January 1980 in which the Janata
new party known as tl1e Janata Party and accepted the 1eaders li1p ,.I party suffered a comprehensive defeat.
Jayaprakash Narayan.
• Congress party led by Indira Gandhi repeated its great victory in 1971.
• Some Congress leaders came out and formed a separate party u1Hkl th, It won 353 seats and came back to power.
•
leadership of Jagjivan Ram.
Multi Party System
This party named as 'Congress for democracy' later ·merged with the .1 1111.,,.
party. • The defeat of_the Congress party marked the end of Congress dominance
over the Indian party system.
The Janata party made this election into a referendum on the emergen<'y f __.
\ J
• It led to an era of multi party system.
For the first time since independence, the Congress party was defeated in 1/11 .. t.,., t ~-
lok sabha election. 1:\ ' • The development initiated an era of coalition governments at the centre in
which regional parties played a crucial role in forming ruling alliances.
The Congress could win only 154 seats.
• With the elections of 1989 a long phase of coalition politics begin in India.
The Janata party and its allies won 330 out of 542 seats in the lok sabha,
• Since then there have· been 11 governments at the centre all of which have
In North India it was a massive electoral wave against the Congress bcc;111 •• ·
0
• --

either been coalition government or minority government supported by other

the impact of emergency was mostly concentrated in Northern States.
party which did not join the government.
The Janata party lacked direction ,leadership and the common program , · r
• . In this new phase any government could be formed only with the participation
The Janata party government could not bring about a fundamental cha11g1· 111 or support of many regional parties.
policies from those pursued by the Congress. • This applied to the :
The Janata party split and the government which was led by Morarji Dn 11l • National front in 1989.
lost its majority in less than 18 months .
• United front in 1996 and 1997.
• Another government headed by Charan Singh was formed on the assurn 1111
of the support of the Congress party. • NDA in 1997.

• But the Congress later decided to withdraw its support with the result l/1111 • BJP led coalition in 1998 ,
the Charan Singh government could remain in power for jusl about 1'0111
NDA in 1999 ,2014,201 9.

Political Science -XII 186 187 Political Science -XII

 6. In which year the fifth general election of Lok sabha was held?
• UPA in 2004 and 2009 .
in a · a) 197 J b)J 980 c)1984 dJJ967
• In the elections of 2004 the Congress party too entered into coalitions
the
big way the NOA was defeated and a new coalition government led by 7. Which was the second largest party in 1967 elections?
Congress known as the 'United Progressive Alliance(U PA) came to power.

completed 'l'wo Marker Questions

This government received support from the left front parties and
two terms in a row. 1. Why is the decade of 1960 called the dangerous decade?

Dr Manmohan Singh remained the prime minister during thes.e two terms. 2. What do you mean by Defection?

Reasons of Rise of Coalitions Governments: 3. Mention any· two reasons for the winning of Congress -R in 1971 elections.

4. Define Syndicate.

Emergence of regional Rise of caste and sect based 5. Name two countries where one party dominance is prevalent
eakening of

Regional parties and opportunistic politics. · Four Marker Questions- (Passage Based Question)

their increasing role in Read the given Passage and answer the questions that follow.
It
information of First general elections were held from October 1951 to February 1952.
took six months for the campaigning, polling and counting to t--, ~villpleted.
governments .
more than half-The Eligible voters turned out to vote on the day of elections
as fair even by the losers.
when the results were declared these were accepted
One Marker Questions sceptics
The 'Times of India' held that 'the polls have confounded all those
risky an experime nt in
1. Tashkent Agreement was done between which two countries? who thought the introduction of adult franchise too

in 1967 this country'

2. Name the state where a non congress party formed government
elections 1. Why did the process of first general election take 6 months?

3. The Election Commission of India was formed in ___ . a) Lack of resources for elections.

4. The split in congress took place in the year: b) Lack of trained election personnel.

a)l962 b)1965 c)1967 .d)1969 c) About 17 crore voters.

5. Which period of Indian politics was called the congress system?

189 Political Science-Xll
Political Science-XII 188
 d) All t)f the alxwe 4. Why is the period of fourth general electirn {l967J deKn'bed as poht1cal
..
J
earth quake.
2. Which part). was ,k1orious in the fLrsl general election?
5. Write four challenges that Election Commission faced in fiut general election.
a) Congress

b) Swatantr Party
Five Marker Questions

c) Jansangh In the political outline of India given below five states have been marked as
A, B, C, D and E. Identify these states / Union Territorton the basis of
d) None of the above information given below and write their correct names in your answer book.
3. What is universal adult franchise? along with t~e respective serial number of the information used and the
concerned.alphabet in the map as per the following format.
a) The right to vote without caste discrimination
S. No. Of the information Concerned alphabet ' ~ame of the state
b) The right to vote without religion discrimination

c) The right for all adults to vote without gender discrimination

used

1)
\
d) All of the above
2)
4. When was first general election held?
3)
a) 1952
4)
b) 1950
5)
c) 1957 I. The state where congress did not get majority.
d) 1955 2, The state where Congress did not get majority but formed government with
Four Marker Questions the help of other parties.

l. Describe the reasons for one party dominance in India. 3. The state where Communist Party of india formed government

2. Write a short note on 1969 presidential election in India. 4. The state where congress formed government wi.th complete majority.

3. What do you mean by the Restoration of the congress system? 5. The state where popular united front formed government.

Political Science -XII 190 191 Political Science -Xll

 ..,.,,,
4, d) 1969

5. 1950

6. b) 1980

7. Swatantr party
l ' ' ol:\
·1 l Answer of Two Marker Questions
1
\.'•.
I ,, 1
:..~
,,. 1
........ ""'( (
'' ., •, '\1:-J 1. a) 1962 India:China war,1965 India Pakistan war
/(1·~
( \ I

j. ~
b) Monsoon failure resulting in drought.

2. Defection means an elected representative leaves the party on whose symbol

j he was elected and joins another Party.

-~~ 3. a) Slogan of Garibi Hata

o,

b) India's victory in 1971 Indo Pak war

Six Marker Question .
4. A group of powerful and influential leaders fromwithin the Congress.
1. Explain the reasons of the split of congress in 1969.
5. South Korea, Taiwan
2. Describe any six reasons of the popularity of Indira Gandhi in the ini\1t1I
Answer of Passage Based Question
years of the decade of 1970 .
1. d) All of above
3. Describe the economic and political situation of India at the time of the l% /
general election. 2. a) Congress

Answer of One Marker Questions 3. d) All of above

1. India ?nd Pakistan 4. a) 1952

2. Kerala Answer of Four Marker Questions

3. January 1950 l. Reasons for single party dominance

Political Science-XII 192

193 Political Science -XII
 Differences bctwe~n the then Fm mr ,._ M,m I.tie
111t (l()fflfflun111l "t'rc mnu~Jh'l'd t,, 1hr Rus11h,n tl'\'n l111h111 r111d nclvocf!lc,I Pt,vy Purse.
lhrf'lth of rommumsm h,t man~ S\1hl\1l'llll
• Differences .imong Syndtcutc nnd yfJung T rk
t,In the first general rlt\·tion.thi.' ).Oduli111 did not achirve much \ucn•si.
• fndira Gandhi 's exp11l,1on frorn Congr
, le the \.'\'U111IlUffi~b g~)t 16 H'3IS.
• Indira Gandhi not giving tmpor"dllce to S ndt
:. S.-e the \.~on rent
• discord on right and left wmg
3. lnmr 29- i generaJ elections, Indira Gandhi attempted to bring the Congress
tJpo~er ~ith fill absolute majonty, for which Indira Gandhi initiated variou, 2. Reasons of the polpulanty of Indira Gandlu
ptilir "·elra..--e programs, resulting in the Congress coming to power with an
abxllute majority rn the elections. Mrs Gandhi's miraculous leader,hip

Pt See the content. Socialist policit:s

5. Pl. See the content. Indira Gandhi's grip on Congres:s part)

• Polarization of votes
Aruveroffire Marker Questions
Weak opposition .
S. ~o. Of the information Concerned alphabet Name of the state
Slogan of 'Garibi Hatao'
used
J. Economic and Political Situation of India.
1) B West Bengal

2) A Rajasthan
Dl'l't"l'a,e m foreign exchange reserves, Oecn:u~e in indu!itrfal production and
3) C kerala
t>\p1.Ht°',
4) E Madhya pradesh
int'll'.l\l' rn militMy t'\p~nst's,
-
5) D Punjab
Slu11do,\ n aml stnk.t's in tht' ~0untiy.
Answer of Six Marker Questions

I. Reasons of split of Congress.