This tradition was broken in Bihar when SP Singh became the Chief Minister and for the first time someone from a backward class became the CM. In this context, the incident of Satish Prasad Singh becoming the Chief Minister is considered a symbol of an important political change. Satish Prasad Singh became the Chief Minister on 28 January 1968 and held this post till 1 February 1968. That means his tenure lasted only 5 days.
SP Singh became Chief Minister only for 5 days. Considering the manipulative politics, this does not seem to be a big incident in the political circles, but it is considered a big political landmark for Bihar. Because, this incident had opened the way for a major political change in Bihar in the future.
Love marriage and film production
Satish Prasad Singh was born on 1 January 1936 in a landlord family of Khagaria district of Bihar. He received his education from DJ College in Munger district. It is said that at that time he went against his family and had an intercaste love marriage. His attitude was rebellious from the very beginning. He was a person who believed in socialist ideology. After leaving political life, he also made a film named Jogi Aur Jawaani and also acted in it.
Satish Prasad Singh was not accidental CM
Satish Prasad Singh was not an accidental CM, but was part of a well-planned plan to end the dominance of the upper caste in Bihar politics and present a strong claim of the backward class. Why was Satish Prasad Singh made the Chief Minister for only 5 days? It is important to know what were the major reasons behind this and what were its far-reaching political consequences.
The background of Satish Prasad Singh becoming the Chief Minister had started being prepared when a year earlier i.e. in March 1967, the United Legislative Party elected Mahamaya Prasad Sinha as the Chief Minister and Karpoori Thakur became the Deputy Chief Minister. This was the first non-Congress government in Bihar. This government had the support of all the anti-Congress parties. The largest party in this was the United Socialist Party.
Click here for detailed coverage of Bihar elections
Read every aspect, every detail of every seat of Bihar Assembly here.
Karpoori Thakur was the undisputed leader of this party and there was a murmur among all the non-Congress parties that Karpoori Thakur should be selected as the Chief Minister, but this was not accepted by the leaders of some parties in the alliance. In such a situation, a consensus was reached on the name of freedom fighter and oldest person Mahamaya Prasad and Karpoori Thakur and Lohia also accepted it only for the sake of forming a non-Congress government.
Chief Minister to make BP Mandal the CM
Mahamaya-Karpoori’s joint legislature party government was formed, but some such incidents took place regarding the appointment of ministers, which later helped in bringing down this government. The first incident was the resignation of Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal i.e. BP Mandal, who was elected Lok Sabha member from the United Socialist Party, and became a minister. The same BP Mandal became the Chief Minister after Satish Prasad Singh. Actually, Satish Prasad Singh was made the Chief Minister for 5 days only to make BP Mandal the CM.
BP Mandal left MP and became a minister in the United Legislative Party government, but Dr. Lohia was very saddened by his action. Senior journalist of Bihar, Santosh Singh, writes in his book ‘The Jannayak’ that Dr. Lohia had given three principles to make the non-Congress government stable and strong. Under this, a leader who loses Lok Sabha or Assembly elections will not be sent to the Upper House. Second, no MP can resign from his post to become a minister in the state government and third, no important post should be given to any new member joining the party.
Government fell due to dispute between BP Mandal and Dr. Lohia
Now, despite being a Lok Sabha member, BP Mandal had become a minister in the state government. In such a situation, Dr. Lohia reprimanded him severely. Because of this he had to resign from the post of minister in the state government and he had differences with Dr. Lohia. Similarly, another senior leader of United Socialist Party, Jagdev Prasad also had differences with Dr. Lohia regarding the policies of the party.
It is said that Jagdev Prasad was not as unhappy with getting a ministerial post in the government as he was unhappy with the appointment of Upendra Nath Verma, a junior leader of his own Kushwaha community, as the Minister of State. Jagdev Prasad Verma was dissatisfied with the government regarding this matter also. For these reasons, Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal and Jagdev Prasad later left the United Socialist Party and formed a separate party by the name of Shoshit Dal. Satish Prasad Singh was the leader of this exploited group.
Politics of manipulation started for the first time in Bihar
Now comes the turn of that political incident, which created the politics of manipulation for the first time in Bihar. Leaders like BP Mandal and Jagdev Prasad of the United Legislative Party (Samvid) government were already dissatisfied. Meanwhile, the Mahamaya government of the state constituted the Iyer Commission to investigate corruption against former Chief Minister KB Sahay and his associates Mahesh Prasad Singh, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Ram Lakhan Yadav, Ambika Sharan Singh and Raghavendra Prasad Singh.
KB Sahay and Satyendra Narayan Sinha were looking for an opportunity to topple the Mahamaya-Karpuri government. In such a situation, he got support from BP Mandal and Jagdev Prasad who were angry with the government. Santosh Singh writes in his book The Jannayak that BP Mandal and Jagdev Prasad were convinced by KB Sahay and Satyendra Narayan Sinha that if they separated from the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP), they would get the full support of the Congress.
This is how the first non-Congress government fell
In this way, BP Mandal and Jagdev Prasad separated from SSP and along with some other leaders who separated from the party, formed a separate party by the name of Shoshit Dal. Then, KB Sahay, Mahesh Prasad Singh, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Ram Lakhan Yadav and Ambika Sharan Singh toppled the contract government. Tyagamurthy RL Chandapuri also supported BP Mandal in this work. Because he wanted to break the tradition of power in the hands of the upper castes in Bihar.
Santosh Singh writes that RL Chandapuri had revealed in an interview on 8 March 1980 why he supported BP Mandal. He told that in 1968, top Congress leaders of Bihar were involved in corruption and the Iyer Commission had filed a charge sheet against them. Congress leaders wanted the contract government to fall somehow, so that they could escape punishment. That’s why I shook hands with Congress leaders and told them that if BP Mandal is made the CM, they will be ready to topple the contract government.
Chandapuri further said in his clarification that the reason behind doing this was that I myself wanted that someone from the backward class should become the Chief Minister of the state and the tradition of becoming the Chief Minister from the upper caste should be broken. After all, Satish Prasad Singh was the Chief Minister of Bihar only for 5 days from 28 January 1968 to 1 February 1968. He also came from a backward class.
This is how the 5 day tenure ended
BP Mandal took oath as CM on 1 February 1968. Because BP Mandal was not a member of any house. Therefore, he had to be nominated as a member of the upper house of Bihar i.e. Legislative Council in these five days. As per mutual consent, Satish Prasad Singh resigned from the post of Chief Minister and only then BP Mandal could become the CM. BP Mandal could also become CM only for a few days.
—- End —-
