Congress Split and Minority Government at the Centre

In the following years, there was much turmoil within the Congress party. So far the Congress party had been accommodative of diverse interests. There was now a growing divide in ideology between the right and the left. The Congress right was in favour of tackling the protest movements and putting down the left, giving more space to the private sector in the economy and improving relations with the US. Indira Gandhi did not agree with many of the ideas of the senior leaders of the party. She was in favour of radical

economic reform which did not meet the approval of the conservative senior members of the party. A ten-point programme adopted by the Congress Working Committee under Indira Gandhi’s aegis referred to the need for social control of banks, the government taking up foreign trade, nationalisation of general insurance, ceilings on property, public distribution of food grains, accelerated implementation of land reforms, provision of subsidised plots for housing the rural poor, etc. Indira Gandhi was in favour of abolishing the privy purses to former rulers of the princely states. Her decision to nationalise a set of banks without consulting her finance minister was not approved by the senior party members. In the end, Morarji Desai was forced to resign from the cabinet.

With the death of President Zakir Hussain in May 1969, things came to a head; there were strong differences over the choice of candidates for the election to the post of President of India. The official Congress candidate was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, a member of the Syndicate, but Indira Gandhi, now increasingly leaning towards socialistic ideology, and fearing that the Syndicate would use Sanjiva Reddy to get her out of power, was in favour of V.V. Giri (erstwhile vice-president now standing as an independent candidate).

V.V. Giri won the election and became the President of India in August 1969.

Consequently, in November, the Congress party president, S. Nijalingappa, expelled Indira Gandhi from the party on ground of indiscipline. India Gandhi managed to win over a majority of the party members to her side and created her own faction, the Congress (R) where R stood for ‘Requisitionists’, in 1969 while the other group was the Congress (O) with O for ‘Organisation’ headed by Ram Subhag Singh. Indira Gandhi no longer had a majority in the Lok Sabha but, with the issue-based support of regional parties such as the DMK, the Akali Dal and the two communist parties, she retained power at the Centre.