The 1957 Punjab Legislative Assembly election was the Second

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, also known as the Vidhan Sabha or the Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in each of the states and certain union territories of India. Members of the legislative assembly are often directly elected to serve fiv ...

( Legislative Assembly) election of the state when the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

emerged as the largest party with 120 seats in the 154-seat legislature in the election. The

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

became the official opposition, holding 9 seats.

Background

Before 1957 General election

Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Eternal Party'') is a centre-right Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are ma ...

merged with Congress and 1957 election was fought by Akali candidates on Congress tickets and 28 Akali leaders won.Electoral politics in Punjab
(Pdf) P. 38. Retrieved 23 December 2021. However, the understanding didn't last long and Akali President Tara Singh ordered the Congress MLAs who belonged to Akali Dal to withdraw from Congress, but only 8 MLAs resigned. Kairon used strong-arm methods to crush the agitations. During his tenure as Chief Minister (1956–1964), he was able to bring about the failure of every agitation launched against his Government.

Punjabi Suba

During 1960,

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Eternal Party'') is a Centre-right politics, centre-right Sikhism, Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India, Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Indian ...

launched Second phase of Punjabi Suba Agitation for a separate state on the basis of

Punjabi language Punjabi, sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It is one of the most widely spoken native languages in the world, with approximately 150 million native sp ...

. Initially Kairon dealt with the protests successful but with the passage of time the pressure had been increased on the Government of India with the hunger strike of Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh. There were several meetings between Tara Singh and

Jawahar Lal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a prin ...

. With these agitations

was gaining popularity among Punjabi Speaking regions and

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

Conflicts in Cabinet

Kairon had to face a tough time throughout his term as chief minister because the Congress party itself was a divided house. There were several factions within the Congress itself led by his political opponents. There were five main factions in the Congress party. One function was led by Giani Kartar Singh (a turncoat who shuttled between the

and Congress party), another faction was led by Gian Singh Rarewala, 3rd faction being led by Prabodh Chandra. Chandra nursed a grudge against Kairon because his mentor, Sachar, was dethroned by Kairon, the fourth faction was led by Kairon himself and other faction was led by

Devi Lal Devi Lal (25 September 1914 – 6 April 2001) was an Indian statesman and politician who briefly served as the deputy prime minister of India from 1990 to 1991 and previously from 1989 to 1990. Lal emerged as a prominent advocate for rural and ...

. In 1958, due to factional feud in the Congress, a

No-confidence motion A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...

was tabled against Kairon. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sriman Narayan intervened and saved Kairon by manipulating support of other factions. In 1959, again owing to a feud in the cabinet itself, Kairon took over the health portfolio from his colleague Guru Gurbanta Singh on the pretext of "strain of overwork". Later in the same your Kairon took over the Irrigation portfolio from his cabinet colleague Gian Singh Rarewala and instituted a personal enquiry against him. Gyan Singh rarewala characterized the move for an enquiry against him with a lot of publicity as a 'sheer political victimization'. Kairon neither asked Rarewala to resign nor did he get him dismissed from cabinet. Kairon's Cabinet instead of being a monolithic body or working as a team was rather a divided house. Kairon failed to provide ministerial berths to certain Congressmen and they became his strong critics.Turmoil in Punjab Politics by S. C. Arora. pp. 60–61.

References

{{Authority control

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

1957 establishments in East Punjab