द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

CHAPTER V DESHBANDHU C. R. DAS IN POWER (1924-25) THE year 1924 opened with an outlook hopeful in every direction, but the Swarajists had no time to rest. The elections to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, the largest municipality in India, were to be held in March. Thanks to the Minister for Local Self-Government, Sir Surendranath Bannerji, the Calcutta Municipal Act had been amended in 1923. Therein, larger powers had been conferred on the municipality, the franchise had been considerable enlarged and the elective element strengthened. Under the con- stitution, it was possible for the Swaraj Party to capture the municipal administration if they were successful at the polls. An intensive campaign was therefore started early in 1924 with the object of capturing the elected seats. So great was the enthusiasm of the people who attended in their thousands the meetings addressed by the Swarajist leaders that the election forecast was a very favourable one. As a matter of fact the Swaraj Party was returned with a very safe majority, a large number of the successful Swarajist candidates being Moslems. This result was all the more creditable because the elections were held on the basis of separate electorate, whereby Hindu voters alone could vote for Hindu candidates and Mos- lem voters for Moslem candidates. At the first meeting of the newly-elected municipal councillors, Deshbandhu Das was elected Mayor and Mr. Shaheed Suhrawady, a Moslem gentleman, Deputy-Mayor. The Corporation soon after appointed me as the Chief Executive Officer, that is, the head of the municipal administration.¹ Though my appointment to this important post at the age of twenty-seven was generally ¹ Under the new constitution of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation there was a division of function—the Chief Executive Officer being the head of the administration and the Mayor being the head of the Corporation as a whole. Under the old constitution both these functions were combined in the ‘Chairman’. 112