Which of the following factors contributed to the formation of the Forward Bloc by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939?
- Bose failed to win the confidence of Mahatma Gandhi.
- The Congress Left was disunited and failed to support Bose.
- The Communists did not support Bose in his endeavours.
- The supporters of M. N. Roy and socialist leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan preferred Congress unity to supporting Bose.
Select the answer using the code given below:
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Statement 1 is correct: Bose beat Gandhi's candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya in the January 1939 presidential election (1,580 votes to 1,377), Gandhi treated the result as his own defeat, and the Pant resolution at Tripuri asked Bose to name his Working Committee in line with Gandhi's wishes. Statement 2 is correct: the Congress Left was split into the Congress Socialists, the Communists and M.N. Roy's group, and none of them stood behind Bose as a bloc when the crisis came. Statement 4 is correct: the Congress Socialists under Jayaprakash Narayan and Roy's followers chose Congress unity over a split. Isolated, Bose resigned in April 1939 and formed the Forward Bloc in May. Statement 3 is treated as incorrect: the Communists had voted for Bose in the presidential election, so a flat claim that they did not support him misstates the sequence. Hence 1, 2 and 4. Bipan Chandra's India's Struggle for Independence records that Bose lost the backing of both the Congress Socialists and the Communists at Tripuri and after, so statement 3 remains a point of contention; UPSC publishes its final key only after the final result.