ERA OF ONE-PARTY DOMINANCE

1. Challenge of Building Democracy

• The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949 and signed on 24 January 1950 and it came into effect on 26 January 1950. At that time the country was being ruled by an interim government.
• It was now necessary to install the first democratically elected government of the country. The Constitution had laid down the rules, now the machine had to be put in place. Initially, it was thought that this was only a matter of a few months.
• The Election Commission of India was set up in January 1950. Sukumar Sen became the first Chief Election Commissioner. The country’s first general elections were expected sometime in 1950 itself
• Challenges were – delimitation or drawing the boundaries of the electoral, preparing electoral rolls, only  15% of eligible voters were literate at that time, the mammoth size of the country and the electorate.
• In the first general elections, it was decided to place inside each polling booth a box for each candidate with the election symbol of that candidate. Each voter was given a blank ballot paper which they had to drop into the box of the candidate they wanted to vote for.
• Towards the end of 1990 the Election Commission started using EVM. By 2004 entire country shifted to EVM.
• Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad member of the constituent assembly, Education minister in first cabinet of free India.

2. Congress Dominance in the First Three General Elections 

• Congress was the only party then to have an organization spread all over the country. Jawaharlal Nehru, the most popular charismatic leader led the campaign. The party won 364 of the 489 seats in the first Lok Sabha.
• The Communist Party of India came next in terms of seats winning only 16 seats.
• In the state elections too congress scored a big victory.
• In the state assembly elections, the congress did not get a majority in a few cases, the most significant of these cases was in Kerala in 1957when a coalition led by CPI formed the government.CPI won 60 out of 126 seats and had the support of five independents. The governor invited E.M.S Namboodiripad, the leader of the communist legislature party, to form the ministry.
• In 1959 the congress government at the center dismissed the communist government in Kerala under article 356 of the constitution. The decision proved very controversial.

3. Socialist party

• The CSP was formed within the Congress in 1934 by a group of young leaders who wanted a more radical and egalitarian congress.
• In 1948, the Congress amended its constitution to prevent its members from having a dual party membership.
• This forced the socialists to form a separate socialist party in 1948.
• The socialists believed in the ideology of democratic socialism which distinguished them both from the congress as well from the communists Some socialists Rammanohar Lohia,  Ashoka Mehta, Acharya Narendra Dev, and Jayprakash Narayan.
• The socialist party went through many splits and reunions leading to the formation of many socialist parties. These included the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, Praja socialist party, and samyukta socialist party. Many parties in contemporary India, like the Samajwadi party, the Rashtriya   Janta Dal, Janta Dal United and Janta Dal (secular) trace their origins to the socialist party.
• Acharya Narendra Dev founding president of the Congress socialist party after independence led the socialist party and later the Praja socialist party.
• Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar-leader of the anti–caste struggle for justice for the Dalits, founder of the Independent Labour Party, later founded the Scheduled castes federation, planned the formation of the Republican Party of India, member of the viceroy executive council during the second world war, chairman, the Drafting Committee of the constituent Assembly, minister in Nehru first cabinet after independence, resigned in 1951 due to differences over the Hindu code Bill, adopted Buddhism in 1956 with thousands of followers.
• Rafi Ahmed Kidwal congress leader from U.P, Minister for Communication in the first Ministry of Free India, Food and Agriculture Minister 1952-1954.

4. Congress as a social and ideological coalition

• Congress began as a party dominated by the English-speaking, upper caste,  upper-middle-class and urban elite. But with every civil disobedience movement it launched, its social base widened. It brought together diverse groups, whose interests were often contradictory. Peasants and industrialists, urban dwellers and villagers, workers and owners, middle, lower and upper classes and castes, all found spaces in the congress.
• Gradually its leadership also expanded beyond upper caste and upper classes professionals to agriculture-based leaders with rural orientation. By the time of independence, the congress was transformed into a rainbow-like social coalition broadly representing Indian diversity in terms of classes and castes, religions and languages and various interests.
• Congress was an ideological coalition, it accommodated the revolutionary and pacifist, conservative and radical, extremist and moderate and the right, left and all shades of the Center.
• The Congress was a platform for numerous groups, interests even political parties to take part in the national movement.

5. The Communist Party of India 

• IN the early 1920s communist groups emerged in different parts of India taking inspiration from the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and advocating socialism as the solution to problems affecting the country.
• From 1935, the communists worked mainly from within the fold of the Indian National Congress. A parting of ways took place in December 1941, when the communists decided to support the British in their war against Nazi Germany.
• The party support was more concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, and Kerala.
• K Gopalan, S.A. Dange, E.M.S Namboodiripad, P.C. Joshi, Ajay Ghosh and P. Sundarraya were among the notable leaders of the CPI.
• The party went through a major split in 1964 following the ideological rift between the Soviet Union and China.
• The pro – soviet faction remained as the CPI, while the opponents formed the CPI(M). 

6. Tolerance and Management of Factions 

• A coalition accommodates all those who join it. Therefore it has to avoid any extreme position and strike a balance on almost all issues. This strategy put the opposition in difficulty anything that the opposition wanted to say would find a place in the programme and ideology of the congress.
• In a party that has the nature of a coalition, there is a greater tolerance of internal differences and ambitions of various groups and the leaders are accommodated. That is why, even if a group was not happy with the position of the party or with its share of power, it would remain inside the party and fight the other groups rather than leave the party. These groups inside the party are called factions.

7. Bharatiya Jana Sangh

• The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed in 1951 with Shyam Prasad Mukherjee as its founder Its lineage however can be traced back to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha before independence.
• It emphasized the idea of one country, one culture and one nation
• The party called for a reunion of India and Pakistan in Akhand Bharat.
• The party was at the forefront of agitation to replace English with Hindi as the official language of India and was also opposed to granting concessions to religious and cultural minorities.
• In the early years its support came mainly from the urban areas in the Hindi-speaking states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh
• The Bharatiya Janta Party traces its roots to Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
• Party leaders include Shyamara Prasad Mukherjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Balraj Madhok. 
• Deen Dayal Upadhaya, founder member of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, general secretary and later president of  Bharatiya Jana Sangh, initiated the concept of Integral

8. Emergence of Opposition Parties

Swatantra Party 

• Swatantra party was formed in August 1959 after the Nagpur resolution of the congress which called for land ceilings, take-over of food grain trade by the state and the adoption of cooperative farming.
• The party was led by old congressmen like C.Rajagopalachari, K.M Munshi, N.G Ranga and Minoo Masani. 
• The party wanted the government to be less and less involved in controlling the economy.
• It was critical of the development strategy of state intervention in the economy, centralised planning, nationalization and the public sector. It instead favoured the expansion of a free private sector.
• It was against the land ceiling in agriculture, opposed to cooperative farming and state trading
• It was opposed to; a progressive tax regime and demanded the dismantling of the licensing regime.
• Advocated closer ties with USA
• It attracted the landlords and princes who wanted to protect their land and status that was being threatened by land reform legislation. Its narrow social base and the lack of a dedicated cadre of party members did not allow it to build a strong organizational network.

1. Rajagopalachari: Close associate of M.k. Gandhi, member of the constituent assembly, first Indian to be Governor General of India 1948-1950, minister in the union cabinet, later become Chief Minister of Madras state, the first recipient of the Bharat Ratna award, founder of the Swatantra Party 1959.
2. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee: leader of Hindu Mahasabha, founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and Minister in Nehru's first cabinet after independence, resigned in 1950 due to differences over relations with Pakistan, a member of the constituent assembly.