Early Election Losses
With his family's involvement in sugar politics, it was only a matter of time before James Shankar Singh himself entered politics. His opportunity arose in 1963 when he stood for the North Viti Levu Indian Constituency against S.M. Koya of the Citizens Federation. The constituency included the districts of Ba, Tavua and Ra and in a tense and sometimes violent campaign Singh lost to Koya by 3,998 to 3,480 votes. This was the closest contest of the election and although Singh obtained the majority of the votes in Ba, voters from Tavua and Ra swung the election in Koya's favour. The increase in the number of Indian Communal sets in the 1966 election, led to the creation of the Ba Indian Communal Constituency, which included all the areas of the district of Ba only. Singh was expected to do well this time but lost this time to R.D. Patel of the Federation Party by 4704 to 4411 votes. In this election, although Singh had stood as an independent candidate, he supported the policies of the newly formed Alliance Party. After the two losses he took a brief break from politics, not contesting the 1968 by-election.
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