Zulfikar Ali Khan - Politics

Politics

After retiring from the Indian Army as a major, Nawab Zulfikar Ali entered the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and served there for three years before becoming an MP (Rampur) in the Lok Sabha in 1967. He represented the Swatantra Party in the fourth general elections (4/3/1967 - 27/12/1970). He served as a Member of Parliament for four years before switching parties in the next general elections.

He won the next general election (15/3/1971 - 18/1/1977) as a member of the Indian National Congress, becoming a member of the Fifth Lok Sabha.

In a major turn of events, the Congress lost control of India for the first time in independent India in the Indian general election, (23/3/1977 - 22/8/1979). The election came after the end of The Emergency that Prime Minister Gandhi had imposed in 1975; it effectively ended democracy, suppressed the opposition, and took control of the media with authoritarian measures. The opposition called for a restoration of democracy and Indians saw the election results as a repudiation of the Emergency. The sixth general elections, which were conducted for 542 seats from 542 constituencies, represented 27 Indian states and union territories. The state of Emergency declared by the Congress government was the core issue in the 1977 elections. Civil liberties were suspended during the national emergency from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977 and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assumed vast powers. Gandhi had become extremely unpopular for her decision and paid for it during the elections. Gandhi, on January 23, called fresh elections for March and released all political prisoners. Four Opposition parties, the Organisation Congress, the Jan Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Socialist Party, decided to fight the elections as a single party, called the Janata Party. The Janata Party reminded voters of excesses and human rights violations during the Emergency, like compulsory sterilisation and imprisonment of political leaders. The Janata campaign said the elections would decide whether India would have "democracy or dictatorship." The Congress tried to woo voters by speaking about the need for a strong government but the tide was against it. The Indian National Congress lost all its seats in Uttar Pradesh and the Nawab too had to leave his seat. However, the Nawab came back strongly from his past defeat and won the seventh general elections (10/1/1980 - 31/12/1984) as a member of the Indian National Congress becoming a member of the Seventh Lok Sabha.

Nawab Zulfikar Ali Khan served as a Member of Parliament for four years before he contested the eighth general elections (31/12/1984 - 27/11/1989). Once again, he won the election by a large number of votes and became a member of the Eighth Lok Sabha representing the Indian National Congress.

The next general elections were held in 1989. The ninth general elections (2/12/1989 - 13/3/1991) and proved to be an uphill task for the Indian National Congress. The result was a loss for the Indian National Congress and Rajiv Gandhi, because all the opposition parties formed together a minority government under V. P. Singh and the National Front. The National Front was able to secure the first minority government, since 1947 Independence, with the help of the Left Parties and Bharatiya Janata Party. Even though Rajiv Gandhi had won the last election by a landslide, this election saw him trying to fight off scandals that had marred his administration. The Congress only managed to win fifteen out of the eighty five seats in Uttar Pradesh out of which one seat belonged to Nawab Zulfikar Ali Khan. He went on to become a member of the Ninth Lok Sabha.

The tenth general elections were held in 1991. The result of the election was that no party could get a majority, so a minority government (Indian National Congress with the help of left parties) was formed, resulting in a stable government for the next 5 years, under the new Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. The 1991 Indian general election were held because the previous Lok Sabha had been dissolved just 16 months after government formation. The elections were held in a polarized environment and are also referred to as the 'Mandal-Mandir' elections after the two most important poll issues, the Mandal Commission fallout and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue.

The Mandir Issue - While the Mandal Commission report implemented by the VP Singh government gave 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in government jobs, it led to widespread violence and protests across the country by the forward castes. Mandir represented the hallmark of this election, where there was a debate over the disputed Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya, which the Bharatiya Janata Party was using as its major election manifesto. The Mandir issue led to numerous riots in many parts of the country and the electorate was polarized on caste and religious lines. With the National Front was falling apart, the Congress managed to make the most of the polarization, by getting the most seats and forming a minority government.

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination - A day after the first round of polling took place on May 20, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam while campaigning for Margatham Chandrasekar at Sriperembudur. The remaining election days were postponed until mid-June and voting finally took place on June 12 and June 15. Voting was the lowest ever in parliamentary elections with just 53 per cent of the electorate exercising their right to vote.

The Nawab lost his last election (tenth general elections) mainly as a result of these factors.

He contested a total of seven general elections, winning five and losing two.