“The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.”

Under the leadership of Pandit Nehru, the Congress won 364 out of 489 Lok Sabha seats. Similarly, of the 3280 assembly seats across the country, 2247 seats went in favour of the Congress. In those days, the general election to the parliament and assemblies were held simultaneously. This practice was discontinued after the 1967 general election.

After the defeat in Mumbai, Dr Ambedkar raised some pertinent questions about the results. This defeat was particularly hurting for him because Mumbai and Maharashtra had been the birthplace of his movements. A PTI report on 5 January 1952 had quoted him as saying, “How the overwhelming support of the people of Bombay could have been so badly denied is, in fact, a matter for investigation by the Election Commissioner.” Of course, nothing happened afterward.

Dr. Ambedkar and Ashok Mehta had filed a joint election petition before the Chief Election Commissioner to cancel the election result and declare it invalid. Among other things, they also claimed that 74333 of the ballot papers were rejected and not counted. In other words, the election result was open to suspicion. If the Election Commission took cognisance of this complaint or just ignored it, is still unclear.

The next shock for Dr Ambedkar came two years later in Bhandara, a predominant Dalit population constituency in Vidarbha region. He contested the by-election from Bhandara in 1954. He lost again to the Congress by about 8500 votes. During this campaign, Ambedkar was extremely critical of Nehru’s leadership. The Congress candidate was supported by Manaharbhai Patel, an influential figure in Bhandara.

Many interpretations are available for Dr Ambedkar’s two defeats. The common thread is that Pandit Nehru did not wish to allow Dr Ambedkar’s influence to grow in the nation’s polity. Therefore, Nehru systematically sidelined him from the national scene. As part of this strategy, Nehru persuaded Ambedkar’s personal assistant, Kajrolkar, to take on his mentor and thereby prevent Ambedkar’s victory in the first Lok Sabha election. To ensure this to happen, Nehru himself campaigned against Ambedkar in Mumbai. Similar criticism was made about the Bhandara constituency.  The Congress party never responded to the criticism of Nehru by the opposition. However, the fact remains that Ambedkar could not enter the Lok Sabha which was created by the constitution he had drafted.

The 1952 election was a momentous development since it witnessed the rift between Ambedkar and Nehru. It was less political and more a clash of ideologies and aspirations. As Nehru was the tallest leader, the Congress dominated the political landscape under him and continued to rule the country singlehandedly till 1967. Afterward, there was a showdown between the two schools of thought, eroding the Congress influence.

However, till the adoption of the constitution, the two leaders worked in tandem. During this period, the interim government under Pandit Nehru was a national government in a way. Nehru had formed the first Indian cabinet, by inviting members from diverse communities and sections of the population. Dr Ambedkar accepted the invite and became Union Law Minister in this government. However, once the constitution was finalised, his presence was highlighted by more policy disagreements than unanimity, especially over the Hindu Code Bill. Ambedkar’s suggestions in this regard were spurned by many Congress leaders. This finally resulted in his resignation on 27 September 1951. The rift between him and Nehru’s Congress was thus finally sealed.

The nation’s polity was undergoing various important changes around this time. Even though there was no challenge to the overall influence of Congress under Nehru, other political shades were becoming evident. For instance, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had resigned from Nehru’s cabinet and founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (now BJP). This marked a significant step in Indian politics as the outfit has been growing by leaps and bounds, except for a lethal setback in 1984. Dr Ambedkar, too, was creating his own organisation, the Scheduled Caste Federation. There have been references that indicate some sort of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s latent support of Dr Ambedkar’s election, not much authentic material is available. All said and done, this turmoil in political landscape suggests that the dynamics to take on the Congress at some point had begun taking shape as early as 1952.

Dr Ambedkar had a stint in the Rajya Sabha but his heart was in the Lok Sabha, the house of people. The repeated references to the Congress party’s role in defeating him in the two LS elections are somewhat incomplete since Communist leader S.A.Dange had helped the Congress in ensuring that Ambedkar did not succeed in the general election.

Some scholars say that the election showed that Dr. Ambedkar’s party, the Scheduled Caste Federation, remained limited to Maharashtra and could not attract voters other than his own Mahar community. But this is just a conjecture. Dr. Ambedkar passed away on 6 December 1956, before the second Lok Sabha elections were held in 1957. A towering intellectual was lost and the downtrodden lost their strongest protagonist.