Ruling Party Faces Reduced Majority

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 13

Ruling Party Faces Reduced Majority

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW DELHI, February 24.

India’s ruling Congress Party by early today had secured less than half the seats declared for the Central Parliament in the country’s General Elections.

The Congress Party had only 67 of the 139 seats for the 521-member Lower House.

Political observers in New Delhi cautioned against speculation that these results meant that the party’s over-all parliamentary majority was in jeopardy. But it was likely to be much •educed from the 145-seat

margin that they had in the out-going House, the observers said.

Many seats have still to be declared in constituencies in which Congress candidates have been elected to State Assemblies and the complete picture in the Central House is unlikely to emerge until after today. So far, the Right-wing Jan Sangh Party has the second largest share of seats with 20 candidates elected. Another Right-wing party, the Swantra (Freedom) Party, has 12, and 10 have been won by the pro-Peking Communists.

Taking Stock

Indians were taking stock today of the radical change in their country’s pattern of government shown by the results of State Assembly contests.

The poll, which returns both State and Central Governments for five years, has ended the monopoly of power throughout India which the Congress Party has enjoyed. Non-Congrest governments are now a certainty in Madras and Kerala States, and in two other States —Rajasthan and Punjab—the Congress Party has failed to win absolute majorities although it has emerged as the largest single party. Once Before

Only once before, when a Communist-led Ministry ruled Kerala for two years, has the Congress Party not been in power throughout the country in the 20 years since independence.

The latest position in the States and Union territories gives the Congress Party over-

all majorities in seven— Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashitra, Mysore and Tripura. Eight have yet to be decided. Menon Trailing One electoral contest attracting interest today was in Bombay’s north-east constituency where unofficial reports said that India’s former Defence Minister, Mr Khishna Menon, standing as an Independent, was trailing his Congress opponent by more than 16,000 votes. Mr Menon left the Congress Party after it did not give him a ticket for this constituency which he has represented for 10 years.