[Letter to Raja]

Summary

B. Shiva Rao writes from 85, Lodi Estate, New Delhi to C. Rajagopalachari on 19 February 1963, on the subject of the bye-elections that had been deferred during the emergency. Six seats in the Lok Sabha and twenty-nine in the various State Assemblies are now to be filled almost simultaneously, with polling expected in the second week of April and preliminaries opening in the first half of March. The Election Commission, he notes, has already sent instructions to the Election officers of the State Governments to make polling arrangements.

Shiva Rao’s central submission is that this compressed round of contests amounts, in effect, to a “miniature general election,” and that Rajaji should treat it as such. He urges Rajaji to take the initiative by issuing a public statement appealing to every non-Congress formation — the P.S.P., the Jana Sangh, the D.M.K., and, in fact, all parties save the Congress and the Communists — to agree on a single opposition candidate wherever possible against the Congress nominee. The precedent he invokes is Rajaji’s own success in engineering Prof. Ranga’s election to the Lok Sabha the previous year through just such an understanding.

The letter closes by framing the bye-elections as an opportunity for “testing the soundness of the Congress Government’s policies both at the Centre and in the States,” and is signed off with warm regards. The page is annotated “(true copy)” beneath the signature block, indicating this is a retained carbon or file copy rather than the original despatched to Rajaji.

Key points

• Letter from B. Shiva Rao at 85, Lodi Estate, New Delhi to C. Rajagopalachari, dated 19 February 1963.
• Six Lok Sabha bye-elections and twenty-nine State Assembly bye-elections, deferred during the emergency, are to be held almost simultaneously in the second week of April, with preliminaries opening in the first half of March.
• The Election Commission has already instructed State Government election officers to make the polling arrangements.
• Shiva Rao characterises the combined round as “a miniature general election” and urges Rajaji to treat it accordingly.
• He proposes that Rajaji publicly appeal to all non-Congress groups — the P.S.P., the Jana Sangh, the D.M.K., and every other party except the Congress and the Communists — to agree on a single opposition candidate wherever possible.
• The precedent cited is Rajaji’s success in getting Prof. Ranga elected to the Lok Sabha the previous year through a similar arrangement.
• The bye-elections are framed as an opportunity to test the soundness of the Congress Government’s policies at both the Centre and the States.
• The document is marked “(true copy)” beneath the signature, indicating a retained file copy rather than the original despatch.