Draft Minutes of the Meeting of the Central Parliamentary Board held at Kalki Buildings, Madras on June 22, 1969, at 10 a.m.

Summary

These three pages are the complete draft minutes of the Swatantra Party’s Central Parliamentary Board meeting held at Kalki Buildings, Madras, on June 22, 1969. The record lists the attendees and confirms the minutes of the Board’s previous meeting before reviewing the Party’s losses in one Lok Sabha and two Gujarat Assembly by-elections. The Board criticized K. M. Munshi’s intervention in the Banas-Kantha by-election and considered internal leadership developments in the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar legislative groups, including whether to support or join coalition governments involving the BKD.

Key points

• The Board recorded losses in all three by-elections that had previously been won by the Party in the 1967 general elections.
• It judged K. M. Munshi’s public support for S. K. Patil, rather than the Party’s own candidate, to have been unfortunate.
• The Board revised its earlier position on no-confidence motions and advised the Uttar Pradesh Party group to support the BKD in light of improved relations.
• It reviewed the Bihar group’s conditional support for the Congress coalition ministry and authorized further discussions about possible cooperation with the BKD.
• The Board approved candidates for by-elections in Bhiloda, the Madras Legislative Council Graduate’s Constituency, and Sattur, while supporting a BKD nominee in Khetri.
• On the parliamentary bill concerning MPs’ salaries and allowances, it preferred referral to an impartial third party, support only for unanimous recommendations, or abstention on non-unanimous recommendations.
• The Board noted the dissolution of the United Democratic Front in Andhra Pradesh, referred negotiations with the BKD and Jan Sangh to the National Executive, and discussed possible opposition candidates for President of India.