United front 1952 an alliance of opposition parties to contests seats in the elections to the East Bengal legislative Assembly held between 8 -12 March 1954. The result was a comprehensive victory for the alliance or front composed mainly of four parties of East Bengal, namely Awami League, Krishak Sramik Party, Nizam-e-Islam and Ganatantri Dal. The front campaigned on an election manifesto that incorporated a package of 21 points program adopted by the front in November 1953. In addition to full regional autonomy, the manifesto demanded that the central Government should delegate to the Eastern Province all subjects except defense, foreign affairs and currency. The general election to the East Bengal legislative assembly due in 1951 could not be held until 1954. Several postponements of the elections under various pretexts only proved malicious motives, organizational weaknesses and vulnerability of the ruling party, Muslim League. The decision to form a united front was initially endorsed on 14 November 1953 at the historic council session of the Awami League held at Mymensingh. The united front won 223 seats out of 309 Muslim seats in the assembly, where as the ruling Muslim League managed to capture only 9 seats and all 5 members of the Muslim League Ministry including the chief minister Nurul Amin, were defeated. In all 986 candidates contested for 228 Muslim seats, 101 candidates for 30 general seats and 151 candidates for 36 schedule cast seats. The resultant development after the election was that the United front leader, AK Fazlul Huq, was invited in 3 April 1954 by the provincial governor to form the Government. Importantly, however, the election result did signal the end of the dominance of the national elite in the politics of East Bengal. Land owners had given away to a younger generation of professional University-trained elite, comprising lawyers, journalists, teachers and businessman. Out of the 223 members elected under the United front banner, 130 belong to the Awami League. The architects of the United front victory in East Bengal were the triumvirate, A K Fazlul Huq, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and it was most likely that the charisma of each of them influenced voters much. *** *** *** |