The Uttar Pradesh Praja Party 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 political ideology ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The party represented interests of

zamindar A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

s (land owners), and contested the elections of 1951–52. The party was formed to oppose 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 Em ...

policy of abolition of the zamindari system. The idea to set up a conservative political party emerged in early 1950. An 'All India Democratic Convention' was organised in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

on 14–15 May 1950, which sought to highlist property ownership rights as a civil liberties issue, and this conference set up two committees. A seven-member team was charged with drafting the constitution of the new party; this group would collaborate with a 28-member 'Programme Committee'. Moreover, the conference named regional organisers to build up branches of the new party. At the conference Sir Jagdish Prasad (who had organised the event) spoke of the need for a pro-Western foreign policy as integral component to resist

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

. However, these committees and organisers proved ineffectual and no real progress was made to found a political party as such. A zamindar conference was held in August 1950, and debated the issue of setting up a political party on similar lines as the Lucknow convention. By November 1950 Jagdish Prasad took lead in the party-building process and announced a conference to take place on 19 December 1950. The group of Jagdish Prasad began to be known informally as the 'Praja Party'. The Praja Party was formally founded at a conference of the Zamindar Union on 5–6 April 1951. Jagdish Prasad was appointed president and Guru Narain Seth was named secretary of the new party. Jagdish Prasad was given the authority to appoint a 30-member Working Committee of the party, which would oversee District Electoral Boards. A 250-member State Council was to be set up, with each district of Uttar Pradesh having at least four delegates. The conference declared that the goal would be to recruit 2.5 million levy-paying party members. Whilst the April 1951 conference had set out ambitious goals for the new party, followed by a number of party meetings and an agitation tour of Guru Narain Seth and the Raja of Oel, its hopes were soon dashed. Extensive powers had been vested in Jagdish Prasad, but his health was increasingly weak. In his absence Guru Narain Seth emerged as the main leader of the party. Many zamindars opted to not support the party and it found itself unable to field the number of candidates it had set out to do. A party meeting was held in Lucknow in January 1952. The party won two seats in the

Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Hindi: ''Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Uttar Pradesh. There are 403 seats in the house filled by direct election using a single-member first-past-the-p ...

in the 1951–52 election, Birendra Bikram Singh in Nanpara East and Virendra Shah in Kalpi-cum-Jalaun North. The party had fielded a total of 55 candidates, who together mustered 301,322 votes (1.80% of the total votes in the state).Election Commission of India.
Statistical Report on General Election, 1951 to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh
' In the Lok Sabha election the party fielded six candidates, whom together obtained 213,656 votes (0.20% of the nationwide vote).Election Commission of India.
Statistical Report on General Elections, 1951, to the First Lok Sabha – Volume 1 (National and State Abstracts & Detailed Results)
'' The party disappeared after the elections.

References

{{reflist Defunct political parties in Uttar Pradesh Conservative parties in India Political parties established in 1951 1951 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Political parties disestablished in 1952 1952 disestablishments in India