Gandhi (1938-1942)

Shortly before the meeting of the Working Committee at Wardha on Sep 25, Gandhi had decided to retire from the Congress and made no secret of it.
The results of the poll (1935)
1. Congress ..........................44
2. Congress natiomnlist.........11
3. Europeans...........................11
4. Nominated Officials............26
5. Nominated Non-officials ....13
6. Independents........................22
It is seen that Govt could normally command not more than 50 seats, ( 3,4 & 5), Congress had 55 votes (1 & 2), Independents had 22 ( 19 Muslims led by M.A.Jinnah). though the Congress condemned the new constitution introduced by the act of 1935, it contested the election The positionof the Congress in the new Legislature may be summed up as follows ;
The Congress have absolute majority in the in the Legislative Assembly in
1. Madras, 2. The United Province, 3. the Central Provinces, 4. Bihar, and 5. Orissa ,
It was the biggest single party in 4 Provinces, namely;
1. Bombay, 2. Bengal, 3. Assam, and 4. the NWFP,
In the sindh and Punjab it have comparatively smaller minority. The totl number of Muslim seatds in the assemblies of the 11 provinces was 482. Out of this number the Congress contested 58 seats and won 26., i.e., 46 %.
Owing to the difference in the attitude towards the War Gandhi lost his influence and leadership in the Congress in June 1940,  Although recovered his position and was asked by the congress to lead the Satyagraha campaign in 1940-41, he was again relieved of this responsibility by the working committee on 23rd dec 1941. This explains why Gandhi took no active part in the negotiations with cripps and left Delhi when they were only half way through as stated above.
Gandhi suggested in his  " harijan" on 19 April 1941, the safety and interest of both Britain and India lie in orderly and timely British withdrawal from India. in other words , for the first time, Gandhi
openly declared that there was an end of of all ideas of co-operation or friendly understanding between Britain and India which Subhas had persistently tried to make the Congress adopt the policy. Gandhihad again recovered his undisputed supremacy over the Congress.
" Leave India in God's hands."

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