Indira Holds On

Nearly 65 million voters went to the polls last week to elect new legislatures in five of India's states. The key election was in Uttar Pradesh, whose 425-member state legislature is the largest in the nation. Uttar Pradesh -- meaning northern plain -- has the biggest population (more than 95 million) of any of the 21 states and the largest delegation (85 of the 524 members) in the lower house of the national Parliament. It also happens to be the home state of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, as it was for India's two previous Prime Ministers. Thus the outcome was of crucial significance to the embattled Prime Minister and her ruling New Congress Party.

In the 1971 national parliamentary elections, Mrs. Gandhi was at the peak of her popularity, and she and the Congress Party won overwhelmingly in Uttar Pradesh. Though she is still respected there, the state government has been shoddy and corrupt and as feudalistic as the ancient Moslem regimes that were displaced by the British. Indeed, in the past year the state has been beset by a provincial-police mutiny, widespread rioting and looting prompted by food shortages, soaring inflation, power failures, unemployment, vicious black markets and bureaucratic incompetence. As a result, Mrs. Gandhi was reluctantly forced to fire her hand-picked state government and dissolve the leg islature last June. To ensure victory in last week's election, party leaders screened 6,000 candidates and dropped more than 100 previous members in an effort to bring in new blood.

The task required computer-like knowledge of each constituency's class, caste and religious makeup. In one area dominated by harijans, the untouchables, a member of the passi, or swineherd caste, was selected; in Brahman constituencies, Brahmans were chosen; in Moslem areas, which hold 16% of the state's population, Moslems. The Congress Party's tactics paid off: it won a clear majority of seats. In the face of the party's apparent inability to solve the state's numerous problems, it was an impressive personal triumph for Mrs. Gandhi.

Student Power. In troubled Gujarat too the Prime Minister's personal prestige is high, but the local government has done little to win the people's confidence. Though Mrs. Gandhi has fired the state government, the popular demand is for dissolution of the legislature, followed by elections. The state has repeatedly erupted in violence, fueled in part by a phenomenon new to India: student power. Between 1950 and 1974, the number of college students in India has increased nearly ten times (from 330,000 to 3 million). Like Indian students everywhere, Gujarat students are frustrated and embittered, knowing well that only a small percentage of graduates--often those with political connections-- will find jobs.

In the eastern state of Orissa, the C.P. also carried the day. Independent local parties won the elections in the smaller states of Nagaland, Manipur and Pondicherry. Overall, Indira Gandhi had lost some political strength, but she was still clearly the strongest vote-getter in the country.

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