Indian presidential election, 1969

Last updated
Indian presidential election, 1969
Flag of India.svg
  1967 August 16, 1969 1974  

  V.V.Giri.jpg NeelamSanjeevaReddy.jpg
Nominee V.V. Giri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
Party Independent Independent
Home state Orissa Andhra Pradesh
Electoral vote420,077 405,427
Percentage50.9% 49.1%

Prasidentschaftswahl in Indien 1969.svg


President before election

Zakir Husain
Independent

Elected President

Varahagiri Venkata Giri
Independent

The Election Commission of India held indirect 5th presidential elections of India on August 1969. Varahagiri Venkata Giri with 420,077 votes won in a runoff election over his rival Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy who got 405,427 votes.

President of India Ceremonial head of state of India

The President of India is the ceremonial head of state of India and the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces.

Two-round system voting system used to elect a single winner where a second round of voting is used if no candidate wins an absolute majority in the first round

The two-round system is a voting method used to elect a single winner, where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate receives the required number of votes, then those candidates having less than a certain proportion of the votes, or all but the two candidates receiving the most votes, are eliminated, and a second round of voting is held.

Contents

Results

Source: Web archive of Election Commission of India website [1] [2]

CandidateElectoral Values (Initial Count)Electoral Values (Runoff)
Varahagiri Venkata Giri 401,515420,077
Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy 313,548405,427
Chintaman Dwarkanath Deshmukh 112,769
Chandradatt Senani 5,814
Gurcharan Kaur 940
Rajabhoj Pandurang Nathuji 831
Babu Lal Mag 576
Chowdhry Hari Ram 125
Manovihari Aniruddh Sharma 125
Khubi Ram 94
Bhagmal
Krishna Kumar Chatterjee
Santosh Singh Kachhwaha
Ramdular Tripathi Chakor
Ramanlal Purushottam Vyas
Total836,337825,504

Giri won a majority of the votes in 11 of India's 17 state legislatures although the Congress Party was in power in 12. His campaign also had the backing of the Communists and other leftist parliamentary parties. Massive defections within the Congress Party resulted in Reddy winning only 268 first preference votes despite the Congress Parliamentary Party having a strength of 431. [3]

Background

The Congress Parliamentary Board met on July 11, 1969, to discuss the presidential candidate. The Syndicate had already decided on nominating Sanjiva Reddy, whose affinity to them was well known. Mrs Gandhi was naturally loath to do so. At the meeting, she suggested nominating the veteran dalit leader, Jagjivan Ram. When this was shot down, she asked that they postpone a decision to allow more time for arriving at a consensus. Nijalingappa, however, forced a vote in the six-member Parliamentary Board. Mrs Gandhi was outvoted four to two.

Even as a brooding Indira Gandhi left for Bangalore, a fresh opening presented itself. The Vice-President V V Giri announced that he would contest the presidential elections as an independent candidate. Mrs Gandhi knew that before she could support Giri against her own party's nominee, she would have to regain the initiative within the party. This she did first by forcing Morarji Desai out of the Cabinet and then by nationalizing banks. She also went ahead and filed the nomination for Sanjiva Reddy, though she refrained from issuing a whip to Congress MPs.

The Syndicate realized that Mrs Gandhi might yet come out in support of Giri. Nijalingappa took a fatal misstep by approaching the main opposition parties, Swatantra and Jana Sangh, to cast their second preference vote for Reddy (the opposition's candidate was C D Deshmukh). Mrs Gandhi seized the opportunity to denounce Nijalingappa's move. Yet, she did not formally reveal her preference until the night before the elections, when she called on her party to 'vote according to conscience'.

V V Giri won the poll by a narrow margin. The voting figures showed that a majority of Congress members had actually voted for Reddy. Giri had edged through with a minority of Congress votes and support from a curious combination of opposition groups. [4]

Related Research Articles

Indian National Congress Major political party in India

The Indian National Congress(pronunciation ) is a broadly based political party in India. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. Congress led India to independence from Great Britain, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.

V. V. Giri Indian politician and 4th president of India

Varahagiri Venkata Giripronunciation , commonly known as V. V. Giri, was the fourth president of India from 24 August 1969 to 24 August 1974.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) political party

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the largest communist party in India. The party emerged from a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964. The CPI(M) was formed at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held in Calcutta from 31 October to 7 November 1964. As of 2018, CPI(M) is leading the state government in Kerala and having elected members in 8 state legislative assemblies including Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, and Rajasthan. It also leads the West Bengal Left Front. As of 2016, CPI(M) claimed to have 1,048,678 members. The highest body of the party is the Politburo.

New Patriotic Party political party in Ghana

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a centre-right and liberal conservative party in Ghana. Since the democratization of Ghana in 1992, it has been one of the two dominant parties in Ghana politics; its leading rival being the centre-left National Democratic Congress (NDC). John Kufuor of the NPP was President of Ghana from 2001 to 2009. At the elections held on 7 December 2004, the party won 129 out of 230 seats. The NPP candidate was Kufuor, who was re-elected as President with 52.75% of the vote. The New Patriotic Party symbol is the African elephant and the New Patriotic Party colors are red, white, and blue.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Political party of India

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is an Indian state political party in the state of Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai in 1949 as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. DMK was headed by M. Karunanidhi from 1969 until his death on 7 August 2018. He served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu five times. DMK was the first party other than the Indian National Congress to win state-level elections with a clear majority on its own in any state in India. The head office of the party is called Anna Arivalayam, which is located at Anna Salai, Teynampet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress and Janata leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India's history.

National Federation Party Fijian political party

The National Federation Party is a Fijian political party founded by A.D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Federation Party and the National Democratic Party. Though it claimed to represent all Fiji Islanders, it was supported, in practice, almost exclusively by Indo-Fijians whose ancestors had come to Fiji, mostly as indentured labourers, between 1879 and 1916.

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy sixth President of India

Neelam Sanjiva Reddypronunciation  was the sixth President of India, serving from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress Party in the Indian independence movement, he went on to hold several key offices in independent India—as the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, a two-time Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Minister—before becoming the youngest-ever Indian president.

The Indian National Congress (Organisation) or Congress (O) was a political party in India formed when the Congress party split following the expulsion of Indira Gandhi.

Yashwantrao Chavan Indian politician

Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan was the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra after the division of Bombay State and the fifth Deputy Prime Minister of India. He was a strong Congress leader, co-operative leader, social activist and writer. He was popularly known as Leader of Common People. He advocated social democracy in his speeches and articles and was instrumental in establishing co-operatives in Maharashtra for the betterment of the farmers.

S. Nijalingappa Indian politician

Siddavanahalli Nijalingappa was a senior Congress politician and the Chief Minister of Karnataka between 1956 and 1958 and once again, between 1962 and 1968. He played an important role in the Indian freedom movement as well as in the Karnataka Unification movement.

Veerandra Patil (1924–1997) was a senior Indian politician and was twice, the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He became Chief Minister for the first time from 1968–1971; and the second time was almost 18 years later, from 1989–1990.

1984 Indian general election

General elections were held in India in 1984 soon after the assassination of previous Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, though the vote in Assam and Punjab was delayed until 1985 due to ongoing fighting.

1971 Indian general election

India held general elections to the 5th Lok Sabha in March 1971. This was the fifth election since independence in 1947. The 27 Indian states and union territories were represented by 518 constituencies, each with a single seat. Under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, the Indian National Congress (R) led a campaign which focussed on reducing poverty and won a landslide victory, overcoming a split in the party and regaining many of the seats lost in the previous election.

1989 Indian general election

General elections were held in India in 1989 to elect the members of the 9th Lok Sabha. V. P. Singh united the entire disparate spectrum of parties including regional parties such as the Telugu Desam Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Asom Gana Parishad, forming the National Front with N.T.Rama Rao as President and V. P. Singh as convenor with additional outside support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left front they defeated Rajiv Gandhi's Congress (I) in the 1989 parliamentary elections.

Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 80 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India.

1980 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election

The seventh legislative assembly election to Tamil Nadu was held on May 28, 1980. Election was held two years before the end of the term of M. G. Ramachandran administration as it was dissolved by the then President of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with the Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam with Janata Party. Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. ADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time. He became the first leader since K. Kamaraj to win a re-election as a Chief Minister.

1923 Madras Presidency Legislative Council election

The second legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 was held in 1923. Voter turnout was higher than the previous election. Swarajists, a breakaway group from Indian National Congress participated in the election. The ruling Justice Party had suffered a split, when a splinter group calling themselves anti-Ministerialists left the party. It won the highest number of seats but fell short of a majority. Nevertheless, Madras Governor Willington invited it to form the government. Incumbent Justice chief minister Panagal Raja was nominated by party leader Theagaraya Chetty to continue as chief minister for a second term. The government survived a no-confidence motion, brought against it on the very first day of its tenure by the opposition headed by C. R. Reddy.

The elections to the next Vice-President of India, were held on 5 August 2017. The announcement was made by the Election Commission of India.

References

  1. http://164.100.47.5/presidentelection/5th.pdf Election Commission of India
  2. http://www.aol.in/news-story/the-indian-president-past-winners-and-losers/2007061905199019000001 AOL news (Past and present Presidential Results)
  3. "Gandhi's candidate wins in India". The Spartanburg Herald. 21 August 1969. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  4. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-18/india/32298526_1_presidential-election-intriguing-parallels-presidential-race