Opinion In poll season, notes from a close fight, a hung House

In her broadcast on All India Radio, newly elected Prime Minister Indira Gandhi hailed the elections as a “momentous experience”. She welcomed the formation of Opposition party governments in states as a sign of “political maturity” and said, “Democracy implies choice. Choice involves alternatives. It is a healthy sign that alternatives are emerging and competing.” The PM highlighted that the ministry formation process was smooth in most states except Rajasthan.

In Rajasthan, the run-up to government formation had many twists and turns. The incumbent Congress chief minister, Mohanlal Sukhadia, could not steer the party to a majority in the state legislature. Sukhadia was a consummate politician and had been at the helm of the state for the previous 12 years, making him one of the longest-serving CMs then.

An academic writing about the Congress party in Rajasthan described Sukhadia as a “… master of political bargaining and compromise. His shrewdness in manipulating and regulating conflict in the new political order has engendered respect and awe, if not widespread affection within Congress party circles.”

Of the 184 seats that went to polls, Congress had won 89 (including one MLA who won from two seats). The opposition comprised the Swatantra Party, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the Sanghata Socialist Party and the Communist Party and had won 48, 22, 8 and 1 seats respectively. Other than the political party candidates, 14 Independents had also been successful at the ballot box. And their support was critical to any government formation.
With no side having a majority on its own, Jaipur was on edge in the first week of March 1967. Opposition parties sequestered their MLAs in a camp outside the city to prevent Sukhadia from swaying them over.

Both sides approached Governor Dr Sampurnanand and staked a claim to form the government. Meanwhile, in Delhi, Congress president K Kamaraj told the press that when no party had an absolute majority, the Governor should call the single largest party to form the government. Dr Sampurnanand, a former Congressman, did just that and invited Sukhadia to form the government.

The Governor’s action received widespread condemnation. Opposition parties alleged that the Governor had turned the Congress party’s minority into a majority, as it would try to win over the Independents after being invited to form the government. There were protests in different parts of Rajasthan, and in one unfortunate incident in Jaipur, six people died due to police firing.

This paper, examining the role of the Governor, wrote, “Mr Sampurnanand’s singularly maladroit handling of the constitutional controversy in Rajasthan has done much more than precipitate violence and disorder. It also focussed attention on the powers of a State Governor, on the manner in which he may exercise these and on his relationship with the Union authorities, more specifically with the President … constitutionally, a state Governor’s first responsibility is to the President of India and not to the president of his party.”

When the date of the legislative assembly session in which Sukhadia had to prove his majority was announced, he expressed his inability to form the government. Then, instead of inviting the Opposition parties to form the government, the Governor recommended the imposition of President’s rule in the state without dissolving the assembly. The events in Rajasthan reverberated at the national level. A numerically stronger Opposition pressed for a no-confidence motion against the government of PM Indira Gandhi.

It was the first time such a discussion had occurred in the first week of a new Lok Sabha. Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the Opposition charge in Lok Sabha. Apart from criticising the conduct of the Governor, he noted that the people of India had decided to test other political parties. The no-confidence was defeated, and the central government lifted President’s rule in Rajasthan after 44 days.

Sukhadia formed the government and was sworn in as CM of Rajasthan for the fourth time in April 1967. He secured the support of three Swatantra Party, one Independent and one Jan Sangh MLA, who defected to the Congress. He also curbed inner party dissidents by accommodating them in his 35-member council of ministers. The events of Rajasthan from 1967 — allegedly partisan Governors, sequestering of MLAs in hotels, and engineering defections — have played out regularly in our country since then.

Roughly a month after Sukhadia became CM, President Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan reflected on these events in his farewell address to the nation on All India Radio. He said, “Democracy is more than a system of government: it is a way of life and a regime for civilised conduct of human affairs. We are not truly democratic if we only posses the outward trapping of representative institutions but fail to be loyal to the qualities of strength of the democratic spirit, unseemly wrangles and alliances of convenience, prejudices of caste and creed, personal aggrandisement, lack of cleanliness in administration. These are not calculated to inspire faith in representative government.”

The writer is head of outreach, PRS Legislative Research