The Praja Socialist Party of India -- 1952-1972: A Final Assessment

Abstract

One of the least publicized results of the 1971 and 1972 Indian General Elections was the all but final demise of the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) and the crushing defeat administered to its remaining fragment, the Socialist Party of India (SP). When the PSP was formed in September 1952, it ranked as the major opposition party to the dominant Congress. Twenty years later when the results of the state assembly elections of 1972 had been finally counted, the PSP had become defunct for all practical purposes (see Tables l and 2).1