Peasants and Workers Party of India

Symbol of the Peasants and Workers Party of India

The Peasants and Workers Party of India ( PWP or PWPI , Marathi भारतीय शेतकरी कामगार पक्ष, Bharatiya Shetkari Kamgar Paksha , popularly abbreviated शेकाप / SheKaPa; "Workers and Peasants Party of India") is a small party with Marxist ideology in the Indian state of Maharashtra .

Party history

The party was founded in 1947, after independence, in what was then the state of Bombay by Tulsidas Jadhav and Keshavrao Jedhe as a split from the Congress Party . In the period that followed, the party oriented itself more and more towards the left-wing political spectrum and used Marxist terminology, possibly also to give itself a “radical look” and to distance itself from the Congress Party. However, it kept its distance from the Communist Party and did not enter into any electoral alliances with it. For many decades, the main political opponent was the Congress Party, which dominated political events in Maharashtra. In the opinion of political observers, the party was less influenced by Marxist ideology, but primarily pursued an anti- Brahmanic policy, whereby the non-Brahmins were identified with the peasants and workers and the Brahmins with the bourgeoisie .

After the dissolution of the state of Bombay and the formation of the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the PWP limited its political activities to the latter and its political weight gradually decreased. Today it is of little importance at the regional level in Maharashtra. The party gives its membership as 10,000. The PWP has a regional focus in the Raigad district in the coastal region south of Mumbai . It is also active in the Solapur , Nashik , Nagpur , Nanded and Parbhani districts .

With Ganpatrao Deshmukh, the party has the longest-serving MP in an Indian parliament. For 54 years, Deshmukh has won the Sangola constituency in 11 consecutive elections to the Parliament of Maharashtra, most recently in the 2014 election as an 88-year-old.

Election results

The following table shows the election results (votes and electoral districts won) of the PWP. Until 1962 the results are listed in Bombay, then those in Maharashtra. The percentages refer to Bombay / Maharashtra or all of India.

year	choice	Share of votes	Parliament seats
1951	Elected Lok Sabha 1951–1952	0.94%	2/491
1951	General election in Bombay 1951	6.45%	14/396
1957	Elected Lok Sabha in 1957	0.77%	4/496
1957	General election in Bombay 1957	6.66%	33/396
1962	Elected Lok Sabha in 1962	0.61%	0/496
1962	General election in Maharashtra 1962	7.47%	15/264
1967	Elected Lok Sabha in 1967	0.71%	2/522
1967	General election in Maharashtra 1967	7.80%	19/270
1971	Elected Lok Sabha in 1971	0.51%	0/520
1972	General election in Maharashtra 1972	5.66%	7/270
1977	Elected Lok Sabha in 1977	0.55%	5/544
1978	General election in Maharashtra 1978	5.54%	13/288
1980	Election for Lok Sabha in 1980	0.24%	0/529
1980	General election in Maharashtra 1980	4.14%	9/288
1984	Elected Lok Sabha in 1984	0.20%	1/514
1985	General election in Maharashtra 1985	3.77%	13/288
1989	Elected Lok Sabha in 1989	0.21%	0/529
1990	General election in Maharashtra 1990	2.42%	8/288
1991	Election for Lok Sabha in 1991	0.11%	0/521
1995	General election in Maharashtra 1995	2.05%	6/288
1996	Elected Lok Sabha 1996	0.13%	0/543
1998	Election for Lok Sabha in 1998	0.07%	1/543
1999	Election for Lok Sabha 1999	0.08%	1/543
1999	General election in Maharashtra 1999	1.49%	5/288
2004	Election for Lok Sabha 2004	0.08%	0/543
2004	General election in Maharashtra 2004	1.31%	2/288
2009	Election for Lok Sabha 2009	0.0%	0/543
2009	General election in Maharashtra 2009	1.11%	4/288
2014	Election for Lok Sabha 2014	0.62%	0/543
2014	General election in Maharashtra 2014	0.9%	3/288

Web links

• The party website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ the year 1947 is given on the PWP website, in the literature the year 1948 or 1949 is occasionally mentioned as the date of foundation
2. ^ ^{A b} Sadhna Sharma: State Politics in India. Mittal Publications, New Delhi 1995, ISBN 81-7099619-8 , pp. 198ff.
3. ↑ शेतकरी कामगार पक्ष. (No longer available online.) PWP, archived from the original on October 23, 2014 ; accessed on March 28, 2015 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Ganpatrao Deshmukh: Longest-serving MLA in Maharashtra scores a record 11th win. The Economic Times, October 19, 2014, accessed March 28, 2015 . 
5. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on March 27, 2015 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).