Bihar Chief Ministers | Kedar Pandey, who led return of Congress majority, but not stability

The Congress (R), the Indira Gandhi-led faction of the party, secured a clear majority by winning 167 of the 318 seats. The Communist Party of India (in alliance with the Congress) won 35, the Socialist Party 33, Congress (O) 30, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh 25.

This was the first time since 1962 that the Congress achieved an absolute majority. The voters’ response to the political instability and constant power-grabbing attempts was reflected in the results, with wins for more than 200 first-time MLAs and losses for many sitting legislators. The polls were also held just months after the 1971 India-Pakistan war and the creation of Bangladesh, which heavily shifted the national sentiment in favour of the ruling Congress.

With a decisive majority, the Congress returned to its upper-caste leadership roots, and Kedar Pandey was unanimously elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). He was sworn in as Chief Minister on March 19. Born into a Brahmin family, Pandey represented Nautan (West Champaran) constituency in the Assembly. He had earlier been elected from Bagaha in 1957 and 1967.

Pandey’s early days as chief minister were smooth. He quickly finalised his list of ministers and distributed portfolios efficiently. Though Pandey was considered the choice of Union Minister Lalit Narain Mishra, he soon realised that many of his ministers were believed to be more loyal to Mishra, who was also Indira Gandhi’s trusted aide. Mishra had consolidated significant influence over Bihar’s Congress organisation and politics, causing unease among several leaders in Delhi.

Pandey, however, maintained regular contact with central leaders, including Union Ministers Uma Shankar Dikshit and Jagjivan Ram, to keep them informed about Bihar’s political developments. Despite these efforts, internal tensions deepened. In May 1973, Pandey decided to reshuffle his Cabinet and drop seven ministers considered close to LN Mishra. He asked them to resign, but four of them refused, claiming the CM did not have the confidence of the CLP.

Faced with an embarrassing situation and potential rebellion, Pandey resigned on May 27, 1973, so that the four ministers would lose their positions. The Governor invited him again to form the government, and he took the oath once more, the very next day. The attempt to reset his administration, however, failed spectacularly. During the oath-taking ceremony of his 37-member new Cabinet, 14 ministers did not turn up in dissent, though they all took the oath the following day under pressure from the party high command.

Meanwhile, LN Mishra’s loyalists continued lobbying among MLAs to dislodge Pandey. The Congress high command intervened, holding several rounds of talks with Pandey, Mishra, and other leaders. Eventually, the four ministers who had earlier refused to resign were reinstated in Pandey’s Cabinet, nullifying the very purpose of the reshuffle.

Thus, while the 1972 electorate had handed Congress (R) a clear mandate to provide a stable government, factional rivalries driven by personal ambition and caste configurations crippled the party from within. The top leadership’s insistence on unanimous leadership selection, rather than an open contest (as was done in earlier Assemblies), also irked some leaders aspiring to contest for CLP leadership and only added to factionalism.

By mid-1973, rumours of fresh attempts to unseat Pandey intensified. On June 22, 1973, his government’s 24 ministers resigned en masse, leaving the government on the brink of collapse. The Congress leadership decided that a trial of strength within the CLP would be held in July 1973. Pandey then lost the majority and was forced to resign, marking the end of yet another short-lived Congress government in Bihar.

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Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had chosen Pandey after consultations with leaders like LN Mishra, Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, and Jagjivan Ram. His selection was intended to bring non-controversial and consensus-based leadership to Bihar. Indeed, Pandey began his tenure with such a reputation. Yet, surrounded by competing factions and undermined by the growing clout of Delhi-based leaders aspiring for power, he found himself increasingly isolated.

Ultimately, his tenure resembled those of his nine predecessors from the coalition era — brief, embattled, and unstable.

Pandey’s government stands as a case study in how intra-party factionalism can defeat even a clear electoral mandate. He had hoped to usher in a new era of stability, efficiency, and governance, but his fall — amid backroom manoeuvres and shifting loyalties — showed how deeply the rot of groupism had seeped into the Bihar Congress. This was a new phase where the Congress party’s organisation started weakening, heavily depending on the government and the leader at the helm. Thus ended another short chapter in Bihar’s turbulent political history.