Page 81 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2

Democracy Marches Ahead Chapter 3

In 1967 elec ons, the
then dominant poli cal
party in India, lost its
majority in a number of
Legisla ve Assemblies in
the states. The situa on that followed is best described in
the words of S.P. Sen-Varma, the Chief Elec on
Commissioner, in his Report on the Mid-Term General
Elec ons in India 1968-69 (1970):

is not only resulted in the formation of non-
Congress governments in a number of States but, as
there was no single party with absolute majority, the
elected representatives of the people in a number of
State Assemblies forgot the election promises and
pledges held out to the electorate at the time of
election by and on behalf of the parties by whom they
were sponsored and started defecting in large
numbers in quick succession from their respective “
parties. e elected representatives forgot that
“ re-defections from one party to
defection and
another is not paying in the long run, and more oen
than not it acts as a boomerang hitting the person by
whom it is resorted to.

Ballot boxes for polls in Madras, Tamil Nadu, 1967

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