While
the Swarajists and the ‘no
changers’ worked in their own separate ways, there was no basic difference
between the two. Meanwhile the nationalist movement and the Swarajist
suffered grievous blow by the
death of Deshbandhu Das in June 1925. Sarojini Naidu was elected President of
the party at Kanpur.
The
year 1926 saw the birth of Independent Congress party and Responsive
Co-operation party in the Central Province. Raghvendra Rao formed the first
while Dr. Munje formed the second one. This in later course received the support
from Madan Mohan Malviya and Lala Lajpat Rai who were known as ‘responsivists’.
Leaders like Shayamsundar Bhargava, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla, Thakur Chedilal,
Gokulchand Singhai had also left. So after the death of Deshbandhu and other
leaders forming separate parties, the whole responsibility regarding for the
Central and Provincial assembly elections came upon Motilal Nehru and Govind Das
ji.
Govind
Das ji turned to Pt. Makhanlal Chaturvedi for help and a daily under the name
‘Deshbandhu’ was taken out. Pt. Dwarika Prasad Mishra was the candidate for
the Central assembly and Thakur Lakshmi Singh for the Provincial assembly.
Congress
lost in the Marathi Central Province and Berar. The Congress candidate,
Barrister Abhyankar from Nagpore lost to Dr. Munje. Congress candidate had clean
sweep in the Hindi Central Province as Pt. Ravishankar Shukla stood against the
Congress and lost to Seth Shivdas Daga. Raghvendra Rao won as the nomination of
Thakur Pyarelal Singh was cancelled.
The
greatest acid test proved in favour of Govind Das ji. Pt. Dwarika Prasad Mishra,
who was promoted and supported by Govinddas ji but received much opposition and
was relatively unknown for the people of the region came out victorious.
Mishra’s victory was Govind Das ji’s victory.
After 1926 elections, Congress did not had majority in any one of the regions. Pt. Motilal Nehru reached the Central Assembly with same number of members as during 1923 elections.