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From HT Archive: Congress chooses Lal Bahadur Shastri as Prime Minister
Congress president K Kamaraj, who played a notable role in preventing an unseemly tussle for power, also promised him “unstinted support”.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was on June 2 chosen as Jawaharlal Nehru’s successor. Following a formal invitation from President S Radhakrishnan to form a new government, he becomes the Prime Minister-designate. Soon after his meeting with the President, Shastri told newsmen that he expected the new government to take office on June 9.
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The meeting of the Congress parliamentary party at which Shastri was unanimously elected leader lasted barely 40 minutes, and was marked by an atmosphere of remarkable accord and goodwill.
Senior party leaders vied with each other in pledging their support to the new leader. Most of them appeared to do so with deep feelings. Gulzari Lal Nanda, who had proposed Shastri’s name for leadership, said they would stand by him “through thick and thin”.
Congress president K Kamaraj, who played a notable role in preventing an unseemly tussle for power, also promised him “unstinted support”. Others to felicitate the leader were Morarji Desai, who till last evening, was himself contending for the honour, Jagjiwan Ram, SK Patil and KC Reddy.
In a speech that he had prepared shortly before coming to the meeting, Shastri displayed characteristic simplicity and a sense of humility while thanking the party and its leaders for their confidence in him.
The hurriedly drafted speech was not intended to be a formal statement of the new government’s policy, but Shastri made a brief reference in it to the need to combat “our enemies, poverty and unemployment”.
Shastri broke down when he came to the portion of the address relating to the great personal loss that Indira Gandhi suffered. He had to interrupt his speech for some moments and later, in a voice choked with emotion, he expressed the view that Gandhi’s “continued associations with us will be a source of strength to us”.
Within minutes of the end of the meeting, the party’s deputy leader, KC Reddy, went to Rashtrapati Bhavan with a formal communication informing President Radhakrishnan of the party’s choice.
The venue of the historic meeting was the Central Hall of Parliament House. It was in this hall that Indian independence was ushered in on August 15, 1947, and later the country’s Constitution was shaped and signed.
Long before the meeting was due to begin, a crowd of political workers had gathered at the gate of Parliament House to greet leaders arriving to take part in it.
Nanda proposed Shastri’s name while Desai supported it. Seven minutes after the meeting had been called to order, there were thunderous cheers indicating that Shastri’s election was through. Pressmen and photographers were then permitted to enter the hall and be present while senior Congressmen felicitated the new leader.
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The tone for the speeches was set by Kamaraj who while announcing the consensus to the party spoke of the need for “collective responsibility, collective leadership and collective approach” in the new situation before the party and the country.
The Congress president, after announcing to the assembled leaders, that the consensus on the choice of the leader was in favour of Shastri, appealed for unity which, he said, was essential for the country’s progress. He asked the party to give its unstinted cooperation to the leader “whom we are electing today”.