The General elections of 1967 popularised a saying that one could take a train from Delhi to Howrah and not pass through a single congress-ruled state.

Identify the option that does not relate with the saying

(1) End of Congress dominance
(2) Growing popularity of non-congress parties
(3) Introduction of phenomenon of Coalition
(4) SVD formed in different states by the parties having identical ideologies

4

The correct answer is Option 4 - 4 (SVD formed in different states by the parties having identical ideologies)

The elections of 1967 brought into picture the phenomenon of coalitions. Since no single party had got majority, various nonCongress parties came together to form joint legislative parties (called Samyukt Vidhayak Dal in Hindi) that supported non-Congress governments. That is why these governments came to be described as SVD governments. In most of these cases the coalition partners were ideologically incongruent. The SVD government in Bihar, for instance, included the two socialist parties – SSP and the PSP – along with the CPI on the left and Jana Sangh on the right. In Punjab it was called the ‘Popular United Front’ and comprised the two rival Akali parties at that time – Sant group and the Master group – with both the communist parties – the CPI and the CPI(M), the SSP, the Republican Party and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.