Indian Congress (Socialist) (IC(S)) also known as Congress (Secular) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

between 1978 and 1986. The party was formed through a split in the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

. Initially the party was known as the

Indian National Congress (Urs) The Indian National Congress (U) was a breakaway faction of the Indira Gandhi-led Congress (I), formed in July 1979 by D. Devaraj Urs, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka. Urs' explanation of the split was the return of Indira's son Sanjay Ga ...

and was led by D. Devraj Urs. It broke away from the parent party in 1978 following

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 and was al ...

's drubbing in the 1977 General Elections. Urs took with him many legislators from

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...

and Goa including future Union Ministers and Chief Ministers A.K. Antony, Sharad Pawar, Dev Kant Baruah,

Priyaranjan Das Munshi Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (''Prio Rônjon Dashmunshi''; 13 November 1945 – 20 November 2017) was an Indian National Congress politician, former Union Minister and a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Raiganj (Lok Sabha co ...

, Sarat Chandra Sinha and K. P. Unnikrishnan

Mohammad Yunus Saleem Mohammad Yunus Saleem (1912 – 15 January 2004) was an Indian politician, scholar, and lawyer, who was also active in the religious field. He was also a poet who campaigned to make Urdu the second official language. He was also a devout Mus ...

When Sharad Pawar took over the party presidency in October 1981, the name of the party was changed to Indian Congress (Socialist) He became the youngest chief minister of Maharashtra by toppling the Vasantdada Patil-led Congress government in 1978. He led a group of 40 MLAs to split from the parent party and formed the government with

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

's support. In 1980, after

swept the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

polls, Pawar's state government was dismissed. In the

elections in 1980, his party lost. Again in 1985, Pawar's party the Indian National Congress (Socialist) won only 54 seats and he became the

Leader of Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. With the split and the decline of the

nationally, Pawar soon realised that he can't get back to power in Maharashtra on his own. Pawar merged his party back into the Congress in 1986. One section led by Sarat Chandra Sinha broke away from IC(S) in 1984 and formed a separate party known as Indian Congress (Socialist) - Sarat Chandra Sinha. This faction merged with Sharad Pawar's

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party i ...

in 1999. However, in Kerala, the residual faction of Indian Congress (Socialist),

Congress (Secular) Congress (Secular), is a political party in Kerala, India, formed after the split in Nationalist Congress Party in Kerala. It is led by Kadannappalli Ramachandran. It had one MLA, Kadannappalli Ramachandran Kadannappalli Ramachandran (bor ...

led by

Kadannappalli Ramachandran Kadannappalli Ramachandran (born 1 July 1944) is an Indian politician and President of Congress (S), and the current MLA of Congress (S) representing the Kannur constituency in Kannur, Kerala. Career Ramachandran was the Minister for Devas ...

still exists and is a part of the

Left Democratic Front The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state of Kerala, India. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the ...

. In 2007,

Democratic Indira Congress Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) (DIC(K)) was a political party in Kerala, India. DIC(K) was founded at a meeting in Thrissur by the K. Karunakuran faction of the Indian National Congress on 1 May 2005. Initially it was called National ...

(Left) led by M. A. John merged with this party.

References

{{Indian political parties 1978 establishments in India 1986 disestablishments in India Defunct socialist parties in India Indian National Congress breakaway groups Political parties disestablished in 1986 Political parties established in 1978 Indian National Congress (Socialist)

See also

References