Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party

The Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party (Farmer Worker People's Party), or Praja Party for short,^[3] was a political party of India. Established in 1951, it merged with the Socialist Party to form the Praja Socialist Party in the following year.^[4] The Andhra unit of the party, however, revived the old party under the name "Praja Party" and lasted for a few more years.^[5]

Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party
Leader	J. B. Kripalani
Founder	J. B. Kripalani
Founded	1951
Dissolved	1952
Split from	Indian National Congress
Merged into	Praja Socialist Party
Ideology	Gandhism[1][2]
Politics of India Political parties Elections

History

In June 1951 Indian National Congress dissidents led by J. B. Kripalani founded the KMPP. Two of its leaders, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and Tanguturi Prakasam, had been chief ministers of West Bengal and of Madras respectively.^[6] It contested the 1951–52 Indian general election, the first such polls in India. The party nominated candidates in 145 constituencies across sixteen states, but won only ten seats, six candidates being elected from Madras state,^[7] and one each from Mysore state, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Vindhya Pradesh,^[8][9] getting 5.8% of the votes. Kripalani himself lost from the (now defunct) Faizabad District (North West) constituency, but his wife, Sucheta Kripalani, was elected from New Delhi. It won 77 seats in the State legislative assemblies.^{[citation needed]} In September 1952 it merged with the Socialist Party to form the Praja Socialist Party.^[6][10]

In 1953, the Andhra State was separated from Madras, and Prakasam was offered Chief Ministership of the state by Indian National Congress. He split from the Praja Socialist Party and revived the old party under the name "Praja Party".^[11] In the 1955 election, Congress, the Praja Party, and Krishikar Lok Party (another splinter group of the original Praja Party) formed a united front against the Communists and won the majority.^[12]

See also

• Indian National Congress breakaway parties
• Haripada Chattopadhyay

Notes

1. Maneesha Tikekar. Indian Socialism: Past and Present. Himalaya Publishing House, 1985. p. 14
2. Yearbook of the International Socialist Labour Movement, Vol. 1. Lincolns-Prager International Yearbook Publishing Company, 1956. p. 269
3. Bandyopadhyay 2009, p. 134.
4. Bandyopadhyay 2009, p. 136.
5. Sharma 1995, p. 55.
6. Chandra, Bipan & others (2000). India after Independence 1947-2000, New Delhi:Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-027825-7, p.201
7. "Members : Lok Sabha".
8. "Election Commission India". Archived from the original on 18 December 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. "The case of the missing socialists - Times of India". The Times of India. 3 April 2004. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
11. Sharma 1995, pp. 55–57.
12. Sharma 1995, p. 57.

Bibliography

• Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (2009). Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947–52. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-01824-6.
• Mathew, George, ed. (1984). Shift in Indian Politics: 1983 Elections in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Studies on Indian democracy, political parties and political process. Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society / Concept Publishing Company.
• Weiner, Myron, ed. (2015). Party Politics in India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-7841-3.
• Sharma, Sadhna (1995). States Politics in India. Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788170996194.