Calcutta South East by-election, 1953
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In 1953, a by-election was held for the Calcutta South East seat in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament of India). The by-election was called after the death of the incumbent parliamentarian from Calcutta South East, Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee. The election saw the internationally renowned barrister Radhabinod Pal defeated by a young communist barrister Sadhan Gupta.
In the 1951–1952 Indian parliamentary election the Calcutta South East seat had been won by the Bharatiya Jan Sangh leader Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee. But a by-election was called in 1953 to fill the vacancy after Mukherjee died. Mukherjee, a right-wing nationalist hardliner on the Kashmir conflict, had been detained in June 1953 whilst trying to enter Kashmir. Whilst detained he suffered a heart attack and died. Due to the dramatic circumstances of Mukherjee's death and the complexity of the Calcutta politics (whilst the constituency was seen as a Congress stronghold it had also elected a Bharatiya Jan Sabha MP as well as communist members of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly) the by-poll caught attention in national politics.
Four candidates contested the by-poll, all fielded by national political parties.
Ahead of the by-poll, the Indian National Congress contacted Radhabinod Pal to convince him to stand as their candidate. Notably Pal had been a long-time associate of Mukherjee and sharp critic of the Congress Party. Reportedly, Pal initially rejected the offer but was later convinced. Pal's conditions for accepting the candidacy included a promise that Pal neither would have to campaign for himself in any major extent nor spend any money of his own on the campaign. Pal, who was a prominent jurist, served in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and was in Japan between September 26 and November 7, 1953. Considering Pal's recognition as a jurist, the newspaper Ananda Bazaar Patrika expected that Pal would emerge victorious in the by-poll.
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