Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru talking to Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah.
New Delhi: There is a lot of hustle and bustle these days regarding the assembly elections of Jammu and Kashmir. Various political parties have made populist promises in their manifestos. In these elections, on one side is BJP, on the other side is Congress-National Conference alliance and on the other side is PDP and other small parties. All the parties are trying their best to win as many seats as possible out of the 90 assembly seats of the state. But do you know which party had created an unbreakable record by winning all the 75 seats of that time in the first election of the state held in 1951?
The first elections in the state were held in 1951
The first elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held in 1951 and then representatives were to be elected for 75 seats. In those days, the Prime Minister was elected in Jammu and Kashmir and not the Chief Minister. The elections for the state were then conducted by the Election and Franchise Commissioner of the state. These elections were mired in irregularities from the very beginning and there was a lot of criticism about it. A party named Praja Parishad boycotted the elections alleging unethical activities and administrative interference in the elections. Even after the elections, the situation was not good and there was a lot of chaos.
Who won the 1951 elections?
In the 1951 elections, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, a party led by Sheikh Abdullah, won all 75 seats. National Conference candidates won all 43 seats in Kashmir division unopposed a week before the elections. In Jammu, the nomination of 13 candidates of Jammu Praja Parishad was rejected, after which Praja Parishad boycotted the elections. In Ladakh too, Chief Lama and one of his companions won as nominated members of the National Conference. In this way, Sheikh Abdullah became the elected Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir by winning all 75 seats.
When Abdullah was put in jail
After the elections, when the Jammu Praja Parishad did not get a chance as a democratic opposition, it took to the streets. It demanded complete integration of the state with India to ensure the ‘legitimate democratic rights of the people’ against the ‘anti-Dogra government of Sheikh Abdullah’. The dispute with the Praja Parishad grew so much that the central government removed Sheikh Abdullah from office and put him in jail in 1953 and made Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad the next Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
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