Believe it or not, the candidates in the first general elections in the pre-Independence era in Odisha had spent less than Rs100 as poll expenditure. And then, there was no observer or anyone to keep a tab on the candidates’ expenditure. While candidates now spend crores of rupees to get elected to the Assembly, the present generation may not believe that most of the candidates who won the first elections have spent less than Rs100 for the purpose.
Odisha became a separate State on April 1, 1936 and the first general elections for Odisha legislative Assembly were held between January 18 and 23, 1937. For this Assembly election, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had provided only Rs10,000 to the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) headed by Pandit Nilakantha Das. However, the Congress candidates spent less than Rs8,000. Some candidates even spent less than Rs100.
Members of Princely families, Zamindars, Mahantas and other influential rich people were members and patron of the National Party, whose candidates spent quite a lot. At that time, there were only 60 seats in the State Assembly, out of which four were to be filled up by nomination. Out of rest 56 seats, six were reserved for scheduled communities and two were earmarked for women. Four seats were reserved for Muslims while two were meant for Zamindars. There was also reservation of one seat each for Christians, Trade and Commerce Housed and Workers’ Representatives.
For this first election to the OlA, there were 5,20,584 voters, who used to pay Choukidari tax. From among these voters, 4,90,381 cast their votes, resulting in a record polling of 94 per cent. It is important to note that in this election as many as 2,25,120 votes were rejected.
Till date, the record of such high polling percentage is yet to be broken. During this election a total of 129 candidates were in the fray out of which 73 lost the battle including 32 who forfeited their deposits.
The strength of the Congress legislature Party was 37 whereas the principal Opposition party, the National Party led by the Parala Maharaja, bagged 13 seats. The All Odisha United Party and others secured six seats. Sarala Devi and laxmibai won the election as Congress candidates were from the constituencies reserved for women.
The OlA’s present strength is 147. The number of voters in the State for the 2014 general elections has touched 2,88,80,850 and the number of contesting candidates is 1,420. The rise of numbers of voter during last 77 years is more than 54 times.
Political parties have now also opened their treasury to grab power at any cost. Distribution of money, liquor and gifts is very common now whereas such practice was not dreamt of during the first election, lamented Gandhian Prahallad Kumar Sinha.
Veteran leaders like Nabakrushna Choudhury, Rajkrushna Bose, Swami Bichitrananda Das, Jadumani Mangaraj, Jagabandhu Singh, Godabarish Misra, Nanda Kishore Das, Biswanath Das, Sadashiv Tripathy, Radhakrushna Biswasray, Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Dev and latifur Raheman had won the first election.
Though Biswanath Das was elected as the leader of the ClP, he declined to take oath as Prime Minister of Odisha on instruction of the AICC. In this situation, the Parala Maharajs having a strength of 13 who was expected to lead the Opposition became first Prime Minister for a spell of about three and a half months. He had to demit the office after Biswanath Das took charge.
Again, the Parala Maharajs became the Prime Minister after the resignation of the Congress Ministry in 1939. He was also compelled to resign in 1944. At that time, besides the Prime Minister, there were only two other Ministers. In this first pre-Independence era Assembly, Odisha was also put under Governor’s Rule twice.
As people accepted the Congress leaders and workers as dedicated soldiers in the battle of Independence headed by Mahatma Gandhi and were known for their simplicity and service, they won the elections handsomely without depending on money and muscle power.