The Nehru Gandhi Files

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By Sandeep Heble

Is Jawaharlal Nehru to blame for overturning the 1946 Congress mandate that had backed Sardar Patel for party president, or is Amit Shah missing the larger point? While Shah described the episode as “vote chori” and hinted that Nehru blocked Patel from becoming India’s first Prime Minister, historical records point to a different story. The turning point lay in the internal Congress election of 1946, a contest whose outcome influenced leadership of the interim government and the future Prime Ministership.

An honest reading of the documents shows it was Gandhi who stopped Patel from taking the post that the Congress rank and file had overwhelmingly en

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