526 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
There were no Primary Elections in the Provinces of Bihar and Orissa.
The results of the Primary Elections in the 40 constituencies are tabulated in the Appendix which accompanies this note. The results prove:—
(I) That out of 283 candidates the Congress put up only 46 candidates on its ticket ( See Table I) and out of 168 successful candidates had only 38 to its credit ( See Table V).
(II) The object of a Party in entering into a Primary Election is to drive out all rival parties from the Final Election by putting up at least four candidates on its party ticket. Whether a party can put up four candidates on its ticket depends upon how much confidence it has in the voters to vote for its party ticket. The Congress has not ventured to put up more than one candidate in each constituency. This shows that the Congress had no confidence that the Scheduled Caste voters would vote for the Congress ticket. If there is any party which has ventured to put up four candidates for each seat it has contested, it is the Scheduled Castes Federation. ( See Table II, Parts I, V, Columns 3 and 4).
(III) Measured in terms of votes cast in favour of the Congress it is proved beyond dispute that the Congress obtained only 28 per cent of the total votes polled in the Primary Election ( See Table IV).
(IV) If there was not the temptation to get oneself elected in the final election with the help of the Hindu votes the Independents would all be members of the Scheduled Castes Federation. On that assumption the Scheduled Castes Federation is the only party which represents the Scheduled Castes and the 72 per cent voting in favour of the Non-Congress Parties should be set out to its credit ( See Table IV).
The members of the Cabinet Mission argued that Dr. Ambedkar’s following was confined to the Scheduled Castes in the Bombay Presidency and the Central Provinces only.