General elections in Bombay
22.03.1951
Mr. Morarji Desai told Pressmen today that the Bombay Government had suggested to the Centre that general elections in Bombay State might be held in the first week of December next.
Speaking about the tube-well project, the Home Minister said its terms were being settled and a decision would be announced soon. Only one firm had satisfied their ‘stiff’ terms and conditions he said and added that Government did not want to suffer any loss on this project.
One of these conditions was that all costs of exploration of wells in North Gujerat should be borne by the company itself. They had also fixed a time-limit for the project and wanted it to be completed between 18 and 24 months.
The Government had agreed to bear the expense on 25 per cent of the total number of unsuccessful wells and would also give facilities to the firm to explore at other places if they were unsuccessful in any particular area.
The Home Minister referred to “misleading and mischievous” reports in a Gujerati Daily of Baroda and said that no school had been closed and no library had been removed from that State, after its merger, to any place elsewhere. Government were also incurring greater expenditure on the maintenance of these libraries and on education. He instanced that before merger, Baroda was spending Rs. 40 lakhs on education while the Bombay State had increased that sum now to Rs. 96 lakhs.
The general elections:Socialist policy explained
10.05.1951
The Socialist Party will contest 2,000 seats out of the 3,000 and odd seats for both the State and the Central Legislatures in the coming general elections, declared Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan, today.
Mr. Narayan who was addressing a Press conference, said the party would spend about Rs. 3,000 for a State constituency and Rs. 7,000 for a Central constituency. The party had not created any Central Fund to meet the expenditure in the general elections but a drive would be conducted soon in each constituency to collect election funds and the money would be raised among the people themselves.
Answering a question whether the Socialist Party would ally itself with the other parties in opposition to the Congress, the Socialist leader replied: “We should like very much to work with the Scheduled Castes Federation. I have kept in touch with Dr Ambedkar and I
have also kept in touch with the other leaders of the Socialist Castes Federation. The Socialist Party has tried to incorporate as much of their programmes as they (the Scheduled Castes Federation) had placed before us. I will also like to work in close alliance with the Kishok Majdoor Party”
The Socialist leader in reply to another question whether the party would work in collaboration with Acharya Kripalani and other members of the dissolved Democratic Front said: “Acharya Kripalani and his friends have yet to declare their policy and principles. But from the writings of Mr Kripalani and Dr P. C. Ghosh, I think that there will be a large measure of agreement between us.”
Mr Narayan referred to the recent expulsion from the party in Bombay and said it had “strengthened and enhanced the prestige of the party”. He denied that the expulsion had created splits and dissident groups within the party and said nothing could be farther from the truth. I am not aware of any basic differences of opinion in the Socialist Party. I am not aware of any split. I think of all parties the Socialist Party is the most united”, he added.