[letter from VP Bhatia]

Summary

This single-page letter, dated 9 January 1975, is a circular from V. P. Bhatia, Executive Secretary of the Bharatiya Lok Dal (Bombay Region), enclosing excerpts from the Election Commission’s Order of 3 January 1975 on the formation of the Bharatiya Lok Dal. Bhatia flags two rulings in particular: paragraph 28, in which the Commission refuses to recognise Girish Munshi’s unit as a continuation of the Swatantra Party in Maharashtra, and paragraph 32, in which the Star symbol reserved for the Swatantra Party is frozen and cannot be used by anyone else to create confusion in the minds of the electorate. The Commission also declines to entertain any new political party bearing the same or a similar name as Swatantra.

Against that backdrop, Bhatia argues that the Bharatiya Lok Dal is now the only vehicle carrying forward the programmes and policies of the erstwhile Swatantra Party and that a single “National Alternative” is needed rather than a proliferation of splintered groups, since vote-splitting has let a minority Congress rule the country. He reports that units of various national parties in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh have already joined the BLD and that its leaders are working to bring every national party except the Communists and the Congress into the fold. Invoking Rajaji, he appeals to former Swatantra workers to give up separate names, flags and symbols and unite under the BLD banner, and closes by inviting recipients to a Workers’ Camp to be inaugurated by Piloo Mody at Ramji Shivnarayan Hall in Kurla on 12 January 1975.

Key points

• Circular letter from V. P. Bhatia, Executive Secretary of the Bharatiya Lok Dal (Bombay Region), dated 9 January 1975, from Sassoon Building, 143 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bombay 400 023.
• Encloses excerpts from the Election Commission’s Order of 3 January 1975 concerning the formation of the Bharatiya Lok Dal.
• Reports that the Election Commission (para 28) refused to recognise Girish Munshi’s unit as the Swatantra Party in the Maharashtra Region.
• Reports that the Election Commission (para 32) has frozen the Swatantra Party’s ‘Star’ symbol so that no other body may use it and confuse the electorate.
• Argues that the Bharatiya Lok Dal is the only vehicle now carrying forward the programmes and policies of the erstwhile Swatantra Party.
• Frames splintered opposition groups as responsible for a minority Congress capturing power and calls for a single ‘National Alternative’.
• Notes that local units of various national parties in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh have joined the BLD, with efforts under way to unite all national parties bar the Communists and the Congress.
• Announces that Piloo Mody will visit Bombay from 12–14 January 1975 and will inaugurate a Workers’ Camp at Ramji Shivnarayan Hall, opp. Bharat Cinema Theatre, New Mill Road, Kurla (West) on 12 January 1975 at 2:30 p.m.