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Subject: search.filters.subject.Elections

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    1 | P a g e Confronting the ‘Congress System’ in West Bengal: Electoral Strategies of the CPI in the 1950s1
    (University of North Bengal, 2017) Jana, Arun K
    At the time of Independence Communists support in West Bengal was highly uneven across districts and among classes. It was largely confined to the working class areas in and around the capital, Calcutta. When the CPI decided to contest the West Bengal Assembly elections in 1951 it was not the only Left party which contested. There were several other that competed like the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), the two factions of the Forward Bloc, the Bolshevik Party of India etc. In the 1957 elections however the number of Left parties that were in the electoral fray declined. The CPI clearly emerged as the leading Left party in the state by 1957. The electoral strength and support of the CPI went on increasing from 28 seats with 10.76 percent of the votes in 1951-52 to 46 seats with 17.81 percent of votes in 1957. Its performance in the parliamentary elections in the state was also remarkable. Out of the 15 seats which it won in the country as a whole in 1952, 5 were from West Bengal. In 1957 the state supplied 6 of the 27 members of the party which were elected to the Lok Sabha. This electoral as well as the social expansion of the CPI in the 1950s is remarkable considering that the Congress like elsewhere in the Country enjoyed dominance in the state in the 1950s and early 1960s. How was the CPI able to expand its social base in the state in the 1950s? What strategies it pursued to challenge the domination of the Congress in the state? These are the questions which the paper attempts to answer.
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    Simultaneous Elections: A Sure Recipe for Democratic Disaster
    (University of North Bengal, 2017) Howladar, Sumit
    The journey of India’s democracy has been an exciting and remarkable one. It has traversed several unchartered and difficult paths. Elections have been one of the core components and drivers behind this project of democratic expansion and consolidation. With changing times both the scale and mode of conducting elections have also changed drastically. While in the earlier years simultaneous elections of both the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies took place, in the last fifty years this system became defunct. But recently the present incumbent government has pushed for renewing this system of conducting simultaneous elections. This paper argues that with the changed socio-political scenario revival of this system is not in the best interest of the nation’s democratic fabric. It highlights that the arguments put forward behind the desirability and feasibility of the said proposal largely based on faulty assumptions and lack sound argumentative base. Delving into the various layers of the issue, the paper underlines the core point that though on a technocratic level conducting simultaneous elections might seem highly appealing, but from a perspective of democratic fructification, this system is bound to prove regressive and counter-productive.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Simultaneous Elections: A Sure Recipe for Democratic Disaster
    (University of North Bengal, 2014-03) Howladar, Sumit
    The journey of India’s democracy has been an exciting and remarkable one. It has traversed several unchartered and difficult paths. Elections have been one of the core components and drivers behind this project of democratic expansion and consolidation. With changing times both the scale and mode of conducting elections have also changed drastically. While in the earlier years simultaneous elections of both the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies took place, in the last fifty years this system became defunct. But recently the present incumbent government has pushed for renewing this system of conducting simultaneous elections. This paper argues that with the changed socio-political scenario revival of this system is not in the best interest of the nation’s democratic fabric. It highlights that the arguments put forward behind the desirability and feasibility of the said proposal largely based on faulty assumptions and lack sound argumentative base. Delving into the various layers of the issue, the paper underlines the core point that though on a technocratic level conducting simultaneous elections might seem highly appealing, but from a perspective of democratic fructification, this system is bound to prove regressive and counter-productive. Keywords: