Congress System: Challenges and Restoration
In this article, what is Congress System, Congress System Challenges and Restoration, How Congress System was Restored, Reasons for the Downfall of Congress System, What is meant by Old Congress, General Elections (1967-2014) etc. Has been.
What is Congress System: In the era of one-party dominance of Congress, the political competition used to run within the Congress itself. In the first decade of electoral competition, the Congress played the role of both the ruling party and the opposition party. For this reason, this period of Indian politics is called the Congress System .
General Elections 1967-2014
The decade of 1960s is called the dangerous decade , because the questions of poverty, inequality, communal and regional divisions etc. were still unresolved.
After Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri was made Prime Minister unopposed. Shastri was the Prime Minister from 1964-66.
During this, many difficulties had to be faced. Trying to recover from the economic difficulties caused by Indo-China war of 1962, drought situation due to failure of monsoon, then Indo-Pak war in 1965 etc. Shastri gave the slogan "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" to deal with these difficulties .
Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Tashkent on 10 January 1966 to sign the Tashkent Agreement (Ayub Khan-Shastri). He died there due to a heart attack. Railway Minister in the Nehru cabinet (1951–56). Was also a minister till 1957-64.
After Shastri, Indira Gandhi was made Prime Minister by secret ballot due to a tough fight between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi. During this, Gulzarilal Nanda was the acting Prime Minister. (1 month 14 days)
Fourth General Election 1967
The Congress somehow managed to get a majority in the Lok Sabha, but the percentage of votes obtained and the number of seats declined drastically. Half of the ministers of the Gandhi cabinet lost the election.
Congress did not get majority in 7 states. Congress could not form the government due to defections in two states. In this way power went out of hand in 9 states Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madras and Kerala.
DMK, a regional party in Madras formed the government with absolute majority due to anti-Hindi agitation. This was the first incident in the electoral history when a non-Congress party got absolute majority in a state. In the remaining 8 states, coalition governments of non-Congress parties were formed.
Many political observers of the time termed the election result as a political earthquake. The Indian political party system which was till now known as Congress dominated or one party dominated system has been transformed into a competitive party system. These elections are also called second revolution and first real general election.
In this period, the oppression of "Aaya Ram Gaya Ram" became famous due to the change of party. MLAs who left Congress due to defection played an important role in restoring non-Congress government in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh.
what is non congressism
Socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia adopted the strategy of non-Congressism. Worked to bring non-Congress parties together.
what is congress syndicate
Congress leaders have a powerful and influential group of leaders. Syndicate leader K. Kamaraj (K. Kamraj) had been the former Chief Minister of Madras and the President of the Congress Party.
Other leaders include SK Patil from Mumbai, SN Nijalingappa from Mysore, N Sanjeeva Reddy from Andhra and Atulya Ghosh from Bengal. This syndicate had a major role in making Shastri and Indira the Prime Minister.
Indira Vs Syndicate
The real challenge to Indira came not from the opposition but from the syndicate within her own party. Indira carefully sidelined the syndicate and started carving out her own independent space. He adopted a 10-point program in 1967 to give a leftist color to his government policies.
In 1969, the Congress split into the Syndicate-led Congress (O)-Old Congress and the Indira-led Congress (R)-New Congress.
Presidential Election: 1969
This election was held for the vacant post of President after the death of Zakir Hussain.
The Syndicate/Congress (O) fielded the then Lok Sabha Speaker Neelam Sanjiva Reddy as the Congress party's candidate, despite Indira's disagreement.
Congress (R) i.e. Indira got the then Vice President VV Giri nominated as an independent candidate.
VV Giri won.
Midterm Elections: 1971
These elections were held for the 5th Lok Sabha, the re-establishment of the Congress. Congress split, Indira government in minority, mid-term elections held.
Grand Alliance: All major non-communist and non-Congress opposition parties formed an electoral alliance. In this SSP, PSP, Jansangh, Swatantra Party, Bharatiya Kranti Dal came under one umbrella.
Indira Congress (R) entered into an alliance with CPI.
Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) decided the program 'Indira Hatao'.
Result: Congress (R) and CPI alliance got more seats than in the last 4 elections. Congress (R) – 352 seats, got 44 percent of the vote.
The Grand Alliance got less than 40 seats. Congress (O) alone got 16 seats.
These election results proved that the real Congress is Congress (R).
The military crisis in East Pakistan in 1972 brought Indira popularity and widespread success in the 1972 assembly elections.
Kamaraj Yojana: In 1963 K. Kamaraj put forward a proposal that all senior Congress leaders should resign so that a relatively young party worker could take charge. This proposal became famous by the name of Kamaraj Yojana.
During the decade of 1970-80 the crisis of the democratic system arose. Some Marxist groups, Marxist-Leninist (Maoist/Naxalist) became active because they did not believe in the parliamentary system. Fifth note of musical scale. More active in Bengal.
Gujarat Movement: Movement by the students of Gujarat in 1974 against rising inflation and corruption. Big political parties were also involved in this movement. Extreme form of movement. President's rule implemented. Indira's main opponent Morarji Desai threatened – hunger strike if fresh elections are not held. Assembly elections in 1975 and Congress defeat.
Bihar Movement: In 1974. The strong leadership of the Bihar movement was given by Jayaprakash Narayan. Jai Prakash Narayan called for a total revolution in the social, economic and political sphere in Bihar.
Along with the Bihar movement, railway employees went on strike for bonus and service conditions. Called off strike without agreement. JP Narayan led the Janata's Parliament March in 1975. Got the support of almost all the non-Congress parties. These parties projected JP as an alternative to Indira.
Thus the movements of Gujarat and Bihar were considered as anti-Congress movements and it was said that these movements were not run against the state government but against Indira's leadership.
Declaration of Emergency: On June 25, 1975, in view of internal unrest, the President declared Emergency under Article 352 without consulting the cabinet. This emergency remained in force for 18 months.
Shah Inquiry Commission: In 1977, the Shah Inquiry Commission was constituted under the chairmanship of former judge Mr. JC Shah to investigate the action taken by the Janata Party government during the Emergency.
6th General Election: 1977
The major opposition parties came together to form a new party, the Janata Party, which was against the Emergency. JP accepted the leadership.
Some other Congress leaders formed a new party, the Congress for Democracy, under the leadership of Babu Jagjivan Ram, and later joined the Janata Party.
The opposition party contested the election on the slogan of Save Democracy.
Congress lost the Lok Sabha elections for the first time after independence, got only 154 seats, less than 35% votes, first change of power at the center.
Not a single seat was found in North India from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana. Got only one seat each from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Indira Rae Bareli and son Sanjay Gandhi lost the election from Amethi.
In South India, it retained many seats in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Orissa. Because the effect of Emergency was less in South India, maximum impact was in North India.
Janata Party got 295 seats out of total 542 seats and supporters got 35 seats, thus total 295 + 35 = 330 seats.
Morarji Desai was made the Prime Minister on behalf of the Janata Party. In the absence of direction, leadership and common programme, the Janata Party disintegrated and the Desai government lost its majority within 18 months.
With the support of the Congress party, the second government was formed under the leadership of Charan Singh. Later, due to withdrawal of support, remained in power only for 4 months.
In this sixth general election in 1977, in the background of Emergency, the Janata government contested on the issue of 'democracy versus dictatorship' and the Congress government on the issue of 'stability versus anarchy'.
For the first time more than 65% of the franchise was used in this election and it was given the name of "Revolution of Ballots".
7th General Election: 1980
The Janata Party was badly defeated, Indira Congress came to power, the one-party system was established again, Indira became the Prime Minister. In 1978 Congress split – Congress (I) and Congress (V) later renamed as Congress (S) Congress (I) with Indira Congress won this election.
8th General Election: 1984
Pre-Election Political Scenario: Terrorism in Punjab, Sympathy wave after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
7 national and 27 regional parties participated.
Congress (I) won 401 seats with the slogan of India's unity, integrity and political stability and with Rajiv Gandhi in memory of Indira ji.
The significant fact was the large number of independent candidates and the secondary role of the caste factor in the election results.
Rajiv Gandhi of the Congress (I) of Indira Congress became the Prime Minister.
9th General Election: 1989
Bofors Case, Corruption, Ayodhya dispute and falling political prestige of Congress (I) and coalition of non-Congress parties are important events of 9th General Election.
Defeat of Congress, but emerged as the largest party in Lok Sabha, decided to sit in opposition due to not getting majority. NT The National Front formed under the chairmanship of Rama Rao under the convenorship of VP Singh entered into an alliance with the BJP and the Left Front.
National Front formed a coalition government, BJP and Left Front supported from outside, VP Singh became Prime Minister, minority government's tenure lasted for 11 months.
In 1990, Samajwadi Party formed a minority government under the leadership of Chandrashekhar with the outside support of Congress (E), the 9th Lok Sabha was dissolved before Congress (E) withdrew its support.
The Congress system ended in 1989, yet it ruled longer than any other party.
A major change after 1989 was the emergence of the 'Mandal issue'. In 1990, the National Front government implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission (1978–80).
The era of multi-party system of governance began, after 1989 no party got absolute majority, the era of coalition governments by regional parties began, the time for structural adjustment program or new economic reform, it was started by Rajiv Sarkar In 1991, the changes took place in a big way.
10th General Election: 1991
It is also called 'Mandal-Mandir' election.
Stability, unity of the country's leftist democratic and secular forces, construction of Ram temple and social justice have been the main election issues in this election.
The Lok Sabha came into existence with an ambiguous mandate.
The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the second major party.
Local issues played an important role.
Formation of Congress (I), the third minority government at the Center in succession to the previous two minority governments. PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister.
The debate on nationalism and secularism intensified, the rise of the BJP and the politics of Hindutva.
The political contest in the 90s was between the BJP-led coalition and the Congress-led coalition.
11th general election 1996
Three major party alliances:
The Congress did not form any alliance at the national level and formed alliances in Tamil Nadu and Kerala at the state level.
BJP also made electoral pacts with regional parties of states – Haryana Vikas Party, Akali Dal, Samta Party, Shiv Sena instead of forming alliance at the national level.
CPI(M) entered into an electoral alliance with CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc.
BJP emerged as the largest political party. Hung Parliament was born, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, resigned after 13 days due to not being able to muster the support of the majority.
A United Front coalition government formed by a coalition of 14 political parties, led by HD Deve Gowda, supported from outside by the Congress, 10 months later, Inder Kumar Gujral became the 12th Prime Minister on the demand of the Congress. Congress withdraws support, Lok Sabha dissolved.
Hung Parliament: In a two-party parliamentary system, when a major party does not get an absolute majority in the parliament according to the number of seats. It is also sometimes called a balanced parliament or a legislature with no control. Like – UK, Australia, Canada.
12th general election 1996
Three coalitions – BJP and allies, Congress and allies, constituents of United Front.
7 national, 35 state level and 612 registered unrecognized parties participated.
No political party or coalition got a clear majority.
BJP emerged as the single largest party.
The government of 17 political parties led by Vajpayee lost by one vote during the trust vote due to the withdrawal of support from constituent AIADMK.
During the 12th General Election 1996, for the first time photo identity card was made mandatory for the voter.
13th general election 1999
The BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with allies.
The 13th general election campaign was a prohibitionist election campaign.
The 13th general election was fought on the Sonia vs Vajpayee issue.
Completed in five phases, the longest election process so far.
The ban on pre-poll survey was lifted.
Use of EVM for the first time – only in 45 parliamentary constituencies.
Formation of NDA government under the leadership of Vajpayee, dissolution of Lok Sabha prematurely (9 months).
14th general election 2004
First Lok Sabha election of 21st century, use of EVM in all areas.
NDA's slogan of Feel Good Factor and Shining from Pragati.
Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin issue.
Use of hi-tech and latest techniques of election campaign.
The Congress, which was out of power at the Center for 8 years, came to power at the Center with the formation of the UPA. Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister.
15th General Election 2009
The maximum number of women elected so far was 59.
There was a system of affidavit (of criminal record and property, educational qualification).
The UPA government won for the second time in a row, Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister for the second time in a row.
16th General Election 2014
BJP got absolute majority (10 seats was more)
NDA got 336 seats, BJP alone 282
49-O, better known as No Vote (NOTA).
61 women MPs were elected at the time of election. After the by-elections held till 2016, this number increased to 65. (11.23%)
State Politics
The 1980s saw the emergence of political organizations of Dalit castes such as: BAMCEF (1978), BSP (1989) and achieved success in the 1991 elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The ineffective period of state politics (1947–64)
During this period there were movements for the demand of new states of the country on the basis of language. States were reorganized on the basis of language on the recommendation of the State Reorganization Commission.
The period of effectiveness of state politics (1964–67)
The role of state leaders in the selection of Nehru's successor.
Due to intense factionalism in the Congress, formation of regional parties by split and split in the Congress in the states.
Tendency of regionalism in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Punjab.
Formation of non-Congress governments in many states.
Period of factionalism and instability (1967–71)
The non-Congress governments were mixed.
Politics of party change.
Congress split into two.
Period of dominance of the Center (1971-76)
Congress ruling in all states except Tamil Nadu, Kerala.
Nominated persons as Chief Ministers as per the wish of the Prime Minister.
The period of constituent politics (1977)
For the first time, a non-Congress government at the center.
Dominance of different political parties in the states.
Pressure on the center by demands for autonomy by many states.
Period of Centrally Directed Politics (1980-88)
Assembly of 9 states dissolved by Indira, majority in elections, selection of Chief Minister of her choice, most of the instructions of state administration received from Prime Minister.
Period of influence of state level regional parties (1989-2004)
During this period, due to the failure of any one national party to get absolute majority at the central level in the elections, coalition governments were formed with the cooperation of regional political parties.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
In how many states did Congress lose power in the 1967 general elections?
Answer: In the general elections of 1967, Congress did not get majority in 7 states. Congress could not form the government due to defections in two states. In this way power went out of hand in 9 states Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madras and Kerala.
Which Indian political party is known as the umbrella organization
Answer: The Indian political party Congress is known as the umbrella organization. The beginning of the party system in India began with the establishment of the Congress in 1885. The entire Indian society put an end to the differences for a moment and organized itself well under the Congress flag. For this reason, Palmer addressed the Congress as an umbrella organization.
What was the name of the group of influential leaders within the Congress?
Answer: The name of the group of influential leaders within the Congress was the Congress Syndicate.
What is the meaning of Congress Syndicate?
Answer: Congress Syndicate is a powerful and influential group of Congress leaders. Syndicate leader K. Kamaraj (k kamraj) was the former Chief Minister of Madras and the President of the Congress Party.
Which general election was termed as a political earthquake in Indian politics?
Answer: The election result of the fourth general election in 1967 was termed as political earthquake by the then political observers.
