ELECTIONS IN INDIA

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26659, 19 February 1952, Page 7

ELECTIONS IN INDIA

Communist Party Successes NEW DELHI, Feb. 17. Mr Nehru’s Congress Party, though [aining an over-all victory in the Indian election, hag been sufficiently surprised by Communist successes in the south to lose much of its complacency. A few results remain to be counted, but it is now clear that India, for the next five years, will again have a strong Congress Government commanding about a two-thirds majority in the House. The Communist Party announced today that a Communist defeated the Prime Minister for the honour of polling the highest number of votes in the country. Mr Nehru was returned b ' his Allahabad constituency with 233,571 votes, compared with 309,162 won by the Communist candidate, Mr Ravi Narayan Reddi, at Nalgonda, in the district of Telengana, a Communist stronghold in Hyderabad. Mr Nehru’s vote was 64 per cent, of the poll in his constituency. Mr Reddi polled 78 per cent, at Nalgonda. In all States, Congress is the largest single party. In 18 out of 22 States it will hold power with an absolute' majority, but the main surprise of the elections, and one which is causing the most worry to Congress politicians, has been the emergence of the Communists as the next most important political party in India. In the new 489-member House, the Communists and their allies will hold 27 seats, only about 5 per cent, of the total, yet more than any other party except Congress. In the State assemblies throughout the country the Communists and their allies have capture! altogether 231 seats, about 7 per cent, of the total. Of these, at least 208 are Communists, though fighting under other names in States where the party is banned. The Communist strength is concentrated in four States, Hyderabad, Madras, and Travancore-Cochin, in the south, and West Bengal, the Northwest Frontier State. In Madras and Travancore-Cochin the Communists are strong enough to contemplate forming a coalition with other parties. The Communists’ most notable successes came in the southern parts, where literacy is at its highest—more than 80 per cent, of the population compared with only 15 per cent, in the north.