1.

United Front Elections

2.Mass Upsurge of 1969 &
Elections


UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA




Bangladesh Studies
Course code: 115

Prepared for
Shahin Ahmed Chowdhury
Lecturer, Department Of Marketing
Faculty of Business Administration
University of Dhaka

Submitted By
Group Name: Spellbinders
Group No: 4
Section: A
Session: 2011-2012
Department of Marketing, Dhaka University
Date of Submission: 19th February, 2012
Group Members:


Serial Name Roll
1. Shahin Molla 49
2. Farhana Tarannum Tania 51
3. A.S.M. Nayeem Hemel 53
4. Pankaj Saha 55
5. Md. Mahbubul Islam 57
6. Tajimul Halim 59
7. Banzir Ahmed 61
8. Md. Saidur Rahman Apu 63










Part-1
(United Front Elections)
Table of Contents

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
2 Background of United Front ....................................................................................................... 1
3 Formation of United Front ......................................................................................................... 2
3.1 Constituent Parties .............................................................................................................. 2
The Awami Muslim League (AML) ......................................................................................... 2
Krishak Sramik Party (KSP) ..................................................................................................... 3
Nizam-i-Islam Party (NIP) ........................................................................................................ 3
Ganatantri Dal (GD) ............................................................................................................... 3
4 Key People ................................................................................................................................. 4
AK Fazlul Huq (1873-1962) ....................................................................................................... 4
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (1892-1963) ................................................................................ 4
Bhasani, (Maulana) Abdul Hamid Khan (1880-1976) ............................................................... 5
5 Election ....................................................................................................................................... 5
6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 8
7 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 9


LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 1 EAST PAKISTAN PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION RESULTS 1954 ................................................................. 7
TABLE 2 STRENGTH OF PARTIES WITHIN UNITED FRONT .............................................................................................. 7

1

United Front Elections
1 Introduction
The United Front was a coalition of political parties from East Pakistan. This coalition was
composed of four political parties of East Bengal, namely Awami Muslim League, Krishak
Sramik Party, Nezam-e-Islam and Ganatantri Dal. The Front was formed on 4 December 1953
by the initiative of AK Fazlul Huq of Krishak Sramik Party, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan
Bhasani and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy of Awami Muslim League (Khan, n.d.).
The coalition was formed to fight against the Muslim League in the East Bengal Legislative
Assembly Elections in 1954. The alliance was termed as the Jukta Front and formulated the
Ekush Dafa, or 21-point Charter as the election manifesto.
This alliance was heterogeneous and different positions of parties on political chessboard made it
a difficult and complex arrangement. But allies strategy proved so effective that they routed the
League in elections.
2 Background of United Front
The foundation of United Front was based mainly on the failure of the Muslim League as a
ruling party, and other historical, political and economic reasons. The general elections to the
East Pakistan 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 (Ahmed, n.d.).
The foundation of United Front can be summarized in the following points:
Failure of Muslim League to accommodate political aspirants to play their role in
national politics.
Deprivation of East Pakistani politicians from participating in the decision-making
process.
Heavy interference of the administration in provincial elections.
Oppressive position of the Muslim League against the peoples of East Pakistan.
2

3 Formation of United Front
The opposition forces of Muslim League realized that by contesting elections on separate
platforms, they would dissipate each others resources and thus pave the way for Leagues
victory. Ruling partys pressure and fear of its repressive measures to eliminate the opposition
also worked as a factor in formation of the United Front. In the election of West Pakistan Awami
Muslim League (AML) was not given a level playing field. This persuaded the East Pakistani
leaders of other parties to form an electoral alliance with AML and pool their resources
together to avoid the repetition of what had happened in West Pakistan.
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 (Ahmed, n.d.). Subsequently, the
Front for a while dominated the political landscape of East Bengal and had its usefulness as an
effective political platform to unite diverse political group.
3.1 Constituent Parties
When the Central Government of Pakistan had finally decided to hold general elections for the
East Bengal Legislative Assembly in early 1954, hectic political activities spread out in the
province. Political parties began mending their fences, preparing their manifestoes and touring
the province for electioneering purposes. The parties that challenged the Leagues authority by
forging the United Front were as follow:
The Awami Muslim League (AML): The AML was the leading opposition party with
widest organizational base. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was its central leader while Maulana
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani led the party in East Bengal. The Awami Muslim League was
established as the Bengali alternative to the domination of the Muslim League in Pakistan. The
Awami Muslim League also enjoyed support among the lawyers, journalists, government
servants, businessmen and peasants. Its forty-two-point manifesto included sensitive issues such
as adoption of Bengali as national language, the nationalization of jute trade, the provincial share
in revenue and development funds, the Bengali representation in the services and provincial
autonomy. Its aggressive advocacy of these issues contributed to its province-wide popularity but
also brought it into conflict with the government. Frequent imprisonment of its leaders only
advanced their provincial proclivities.
3

Krishak Sramik Party (KSP): The KSP was formed on 27 July, 1953 by A.K. Fazlul Haq
after resigning from the office of Advocate General of East Bengal. Haq became its founder
president. It was founded at a meeting of political workers held at his residence. The KSP
announced its twelve point program on 29 July, 1953. The program included release of
political prisoners; Bengali as a national language; full provincial autonomy on the basis of
Lahore Resolution; reorientation of the education system, economic development etc. A
distinguishing feature of its program was its religious orientation adopted in cooperation with
Nizam-e-Islam Party. As a conservative leader Haq developed close liaison with religious
leaders though himself was a regionalist and talked for laborers and peasants.
Nizam-i-Islam Party (NIP): The NIP was a new name of East Bengal JUI
1
which, under
the leadership of Maulana Athar Ali, decided to participate in politics directly. Its primary
aim was to struggle for an Islamic order in Pakistan. The dismissal of the Nazim-ud-Din
ministry (April 1953) and the fear of an un-Islamic constitution being imposed, as well as the
mounting opposition to the Muslim League, induced it to function as a political party,
independent of Muslim League, and to contest the elections as such. Its main aim was to exert
influence on constitution making process that would lead to the establishment of an Islamic order
based on Quranic principles; but in other matters, like the language issue and provincial
autonomy, it followed the lead given by the opposition parties.
Ganatantri Dal (GD): The non-communal left oriented the GDs foundation was laid at a
convention on 19 January, 1953, attended by about one thousand political workers. Mehmud
Ali was its moving spirit. He was supported by Haji Muhammad Danish, a legendary peasant
leader. The latter was elected president while the former as general secretary of the party
(Salamat, 1992)
2
.


1
JUI: Jamiatul-Ulemai-Silam,a religious political part of the Deobandi school
< http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_r eader.php?BiotID=580>
2
Zarina Salamat, Pakistan 1947-1958: An Historical Review (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical
and Cultural Research, 1992), p.120.
4

4 Key People
AK Fazlul Huq (1873-1962): He was a well-known Bengali
statesman in the first half of the 20th century. Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq is
popularly known as Sher-e-Bangla or Hak Saheb. He was a public leader
and holder of many high political posts including those of the Mayor of
Calcutta (1935), Chief Minister of undivided Bengal (1937-1943) and East
Bengal (1954), Home Minister of Pakistan (1955) and Governor of East
Pakistan (1956-58).
He was elected leader of the United Front. His personal popularity helped a great deal in
mobilizing the public in favor of the United Front election campaigning. The charisma of the
Sher-e-Bangla was a dominant factor for the landslide victory of the Front. After the elections of
1954, AK Fazlul Huq became the chief minister of East Bengal, though his party was far behind
the Awami Muslim League in capturing seats in the legislature. It is politically interesting that
Huq could become chief minister of Bengal two times and chief minister of East Bengal again
without ever having majority support in the legislature. It is indicative of his statesmanship and
political management. He could always maintain a trans-party demeanor (De and Rahim, n.d.).
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (1892-1963): Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy was a Pakistani left-wing statesman of Bengali origin, and one
of the principal Founding Fathers of modern-day Pakistan. He was Prime
Minister (provincial Chief Minister was designated as Prime Minister until
1947) of Bengal (1946) and Prime Minister of Pakistan (1956-57).
In 1920 Suhrawardy returned to India and got involved in active politics
(Banglapedia, n.d.). In the 1950s, he worked to consolidate political parties in East Pakistan to
balance the politics of West Pakistan. His political farsightedness brought United Front the
landslide victory in 1954 general election of East Pakistan.

5

Bhasani, (Maulana) Abdul Hamid Khan (1880-1976):
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani was a religious personality and popular
politician in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Popularly known as Maulana
Bhasani, Abdul Hamid Khan was self-educated, village-based, a fire-
brand, and skeptical about colonial institutions. Though immensely
influential throughout his political career and instrumental in winning
many general and local government elections since 1946, he consistently stayed away from
holding actual power. His leadership was rooted in his relentless and incessant struggle for
safeguarding the rights and interests of the peasantry and the laboring class (Banglapedia, n.d.).
5 Election
The most difficult phase in the United Fronts life began after formation. For running a
successful electoral campaign the allies had not only to agree on the number of seats allocated to
each partner to contest the elections but also to focus on the issues agreed upon in common
minimum program to avoid historical, ideological and other differences between the coalition
partners. They needed common institutions to direct the propaganda of allies and supervise the
implementation of agreements but due to lack of experience in coalition politics they could not
evolve such institutions.
However the leadership of the United Front (UF) evolved a very successful and effective strategy
to campaign for victory in the forthcoming elections. The campaigners of the Front focused
principally on weaknesses of the Pakistan Muslim League. The leadership of the alliance
criticized and held the League responsible for every ill. The Front had selected issues that
appealed to the people like language, constitution, independent foreign policy, provincial
autonomy etc. Its attempt to exploit peoples grievances proved fruitful.
The Front campaigned on an election manifesto that incorporated a package of twenty one point
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. It also called for recognition of Bangla as a
state language, release of political prisoners, transformation of the then official residence
6

(Burdwan House) of East Bengal's chief minister into Bangla Academy, construction of Shaheed
Minar at the site of the police firing in 1952; declaration of 21 February as a public holiday,
more autonomy for Dhaka and Rajshahi universities, introduction of economic and social rights
for industrial workers in keeping with the principles of ILO, nationalization of jute, guarantee of
fair prices for commodities, and public support for cooperatives and cottage industries.
Notable pledges contained in the 21-points were:
making Bengali one of the main state languages
autonomy for the province
reforms in education
independence of the judiciary
making the legislative assembly effective
The allies conveyed their message to the people through rallies, public meetings, posters, banners
and press statements. Press and radio were under governments control; therefore, they gave little
or no coverage to the opposition activities. Print media occasionally gave some space to the
United Fronts viewpoint, while the radio was totally out of its reach. But in spite of these
limitations the front successfully managed to approach and communicate its message to the
people. Public meetings, rallies and political workers were main propaganda tools of the United
Front (Mustafa, 2010).
The campaign gained considerable momentum. The League harped on its old tune but realizing
the UF popularity postponed elections from 16 February to 8 March, requested Fatima Jinnah to
run their campaign and got Eisenhower
3
announce military aid to Pakistan, which was made on
25 February, 1954. The UFs criticism did not budge the League from its decision to postpone
the polling date (Ahmed, 1993). This was an attempt to help the League in election. It was
typical misunderstanding of popular opinion and, in any case, the partys image was beyond
repair and this step cast further negative effect (Jalal, 1999).
In the elections held from 8 to 12 March, 1285 candidates contested for 304 seats, 5 seats having
been won uncontested. Of them, 986 were Muslim candidates for 228 seats, 101 Hindu

3
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 March 28, 1969) was the 34th President of the
United States from 1953 until 1961.
7

candidates for 30 seats, 151 scheduled caste candidates for 36 seats. The seats for the non-
Muslims were contested by candidates mainly from the Pakistan National Congress, United
Progressive Party and the Scheduled Caste Federation. The total electors numbered 19,748,568
of whom 7,344,216 (37.19%) cast their votes. The lower turnout was ascribed to poor
communications in rural areas and the reluctance of conservative Muslim women to come out of
their houses. All five members of the Muslim League Ministry including the chief minister
(Nurul Amin) were defeated.
Table 1 East Pakistan Provincial Assembly Election Results 1954
Muslim Parties Seats Non Muslim Parties Seats
United Front 223 Pakistan National Congress 24
Muslim League 10 Scheduled Castes Federation 27
Khilafat-i-Rabbani Party 01 United Front (Minority) 10
Independents 03 Others 11
Total 237 Total 72
Source: Munir Ahmed, Pakistan Kay Syasi Ittihaad
(Lahore: Frontier Post Publications, 1993), p 19.
Table 2 Strength of Parties within United Front
Component Parties Seats
AML 143
KSP 48
NIP 19
GD 13
Total 223
Source: M. Rafique Afzal, Political Parties in Pakistan 1947-1958, Vol. I (Islamabad: National
Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1986), p.118
4
.

4
Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, Vol. XXXI, No.1, 2010 ; Page 119
<http://www.nihcr.edu.pk/Latest_English_Journal/5%20%20ALLIANCE%20POLITICS%20IN%20PAK
ISTAN.pdf>
8


Figure 1 Strength of Parties within United Front
6 Conclusion
The United Front was the first pre-electoral alliance in Pakistans history. It was formed at the
time when political parties in Pakistan had little or no democratic experience and training.
Despite of having diverse background, during election campaign the allies didnt allow their
differences to surface to an extent that would lead to disintegration. This provided them an
opportunity to exploit the situation in their favor. The front had two advantages over the ML;
firstly, its leadership was popular among the masses; secondly, its manifesto appealed to the
mass people. The alliances political experience proved an important asset for political actors in
the subsequent history of the country.
AML, 143, 64%
KSP, 48, 22%
NIP, 19, 8%
GD, 13, 6%
Seats/Strength of Parties within United Front
AML
KSP
NIP
GD
9

7 Bibliography
i. Ahmed, M. (1993) Pakistan Kay Syasi Ittihaad, Lahore: Frontier Post Publications.
ii. Ahmed, K.U. United Front, [Online], Available:
http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/U_0022.HTM [11 February 2012].
iii. Banglapedia Bhasani, (Maulana) Abdul Hamid Khan, [Online], Available:
http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/B_0464.HTM [12 February 2012].
iv. Banglapedia Suhrawardy, Huseyn Shaheed, [Online], Available:
http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/S_0588.HTM [12 February 2012].
v. De, A. and Rahim, E. Huq, AK Fazlul, [Online], Available:
http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/H_0197.HTM [12 February 2012].
vi. Jalal, A. (1999) The State of Martial Rule: The Origins of Pakistans Political Economy
of Defence, Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications.
vii. Khan, M.H. Twenty One Point Programme, [Online], Available:
http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/T_0251.HTM [11 february 2012].
viii. Mustafa, G. (2010) 'Alliance Politics in Pakistan: A Study of the United Front', Pakistan
Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXI, no. 1, pp. 106-107.
ix. Mustafa, G. (2010) 'Alliance Politics in Pakistan: A Study of the United Front', Pakistan
Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXI, no. 1, p. 113.
x. Salamat, Z. (1992) 'Pakistan 1947-1958: An Historical Review' Islamabad: National
Institute of Historical and Cultural Research.