Shoshit Dal
Shoshit Dal | |
|---|---|
| President | B. P. Mandal |
| Founder | Jagdeo Prasad[1] B. P. Mandal |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Dissolved | 1972 |
| Split from | Samyukta Socialist Party |
| Merged into | Shoshit Samaj Dal |
| Ideology | Socialism |
| Political position | Centre to Centre-left |
The Shoshit Dal (lit. 'Party of the Exploited') was a regional political party in Bihar, India, founded by Jagdeo Prasad and B. P. Mandal in March 1967.[2] The party emerged after Mandal split from the Samyukta Socialist Party over disagreements with Ram Manohar Lohia's leadership.[2] In early 1968, the Shoshit Dal, with the support of the Congress party,[3][4] formed the first ever OBC-led government in Northern India with B. P. Mandal as the Chief Minister of Bihar.[2]
Rise and fall of Shoshit Dal
[edit]Within a year of the party's formation, Shoshit Dal founder B. P. Mandal successfully drew 40 lower-caste MLA dissidents from the Samyukta Socialist Party and other parties and engineered a coalition to topple the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) government.[3][2] With the external support of the Indian National Congress, the party prepared to form a new ministry.[5] However, because Mandal was a sitting Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha rather than a member of the state legislature, Shoshit Dal MLA Satish Prasad Singh was chosen as a stopgap leader and sworn in as Chief Minister on 28 January 1968.[2] Singh served for a brief tenure of four days.[2][6] Once Mandal was successfully sworn in as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC), he took the oath as the seventh Chief Minister on 1 February 1968,[2] and became the first OBC chief minister of Bihar.[2][3][7] Despite making history by forming a cabinet dominated by Other Backward Classes (OBC) ministers, the Shoshit Dal led government lasted for about one month.[2] The government fell when a group of 17 Congress defectors led by Binodanand Jha withdrew their support and favoured the no-confidence motion moved by Karpoori Thakur, a leader of Samyukta Socialist Party.[5][2]
The Shoshit Dal won six seats in the next 1969 Bihar Legislative Assembly election.[8] In 1972, the party officially merged with Ramswaroop Verma's Samaj Dal to form the Shoshit Samaj Dal, spearheaded by Jagdeo Prasad.[1]
List of chief ministers
[edit]| No. | Name | Constituency | Term of office | Tenure length | Assembly | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Satish Prasad Singh | Parbatta[9] | 28 January 1968 | 1 February 1968 | 4 days | 4th Assembly (1967 election) |
[10] |
| 2 | B. P. Mandal | MLC | 1 February 1968 | 2 March 1968 | 30 days | ||
References
[edit]- ^ a b Ranjan, Pramod (2023). Jal, Murzban (ed.). Rethinking Caste and Resistance in India. Taylor & Francis. p. 183. ISBN 978-1-000-90592-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kumar, Arvind (2021). "Mandal, Mandal Commission and making of an OBC identity". In Somanaboina, Simhadri; Ramagoud, Akhileshwari (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of the Other Backward Classes in India: Thought, Movements and Development. Taylor & Francis. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-000-46280-7.
- ^ a b c Jaffrelot, Christophe (2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. p. 463–464. ISBN 978-93-80607-04-7.
- ^ Robin, Cyril (2012). "Bihar: The New Stronghold of OBC Politics". In Jaffrelot, Christophe; Kumar, Sanjay (eds.). Rise of the Plebeians?: The Changing Face of the Indian Legislative Assemblies. Routledge. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-136-51661-0.
- ^ a b Mohan, R. (2025). India's Federal Setup: A Journey Through Seven Decades. Taylor & Francis. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-04-034657-0.
- ^ Singh, Santosh (2015). Ruled or Misruled: Story and Destiny of Bihar. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-93-85436-42-0.
- ^ Ankit, Rakesh (2018). "Caste Politics in Bihar: In Historical Continuum". History and Sociology of South Asia. 12 (2): 9. doi:10.1177/2230807518767968. ISSN 2230-8075.
[..] B.P. Mandal–'the first person from the Backward Classes to become chief minister (CM)'–
- ^ "From the Archives (June 21, 1969): Bihar's Ministry falls". The Hindu. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2026.
- ^ Kumar, Madan (2 November 2020). "Bihar's shortest-serving CM Satish Prasad Singh dies of Covid-19 in Delhi". The Times of India. Retrieved 31 May 2026.
- ^ "Bihar Politics 2025: Bihar's Longest and Shortest Serving CMs Nitish Kumar's 18-Year Dominance". Deccan Herald. 17 October 2025. Retrieved 31 May 2026.