First elections to the vincial Assemblies were conducted in 1937. Only between 10 to 12% of the population had voting rights. The Congress won big victories. In 5 provinces, it had simple majority. In two provinces it had the highest number of seats. Thus Congress was able to form ministries in 7 out of 11 provinces. In two provinces there was coalition government.
In the Muslim Constituencies, the performance of the Congress was bad.
The performance of the Muslim League was very bad. It got only a small portion of the Muslim votes polled. In the North-West Frontier Province, it did not get even a single seat. In Punjab there were 84 Reservation seats. The League got only 2 out of these. In Sindh there were 33 Reservation seats. The League got 3.
Muslim League wanted to make a Coalition Ministry in United Province (present UP) by collaborating with the Congress. But since Congress had the simple majority. Congress refused League’s request. This increased the enmity between the Congress and League. League was now sure that in an untied India it would never get political power. The League started thinking that only a Muslim Party could look after the interests of the Muslims. It said that Congress was a Hindu Party.
Jinnah argued that League was the spokesperson for all Muslims. But this argument was not initially accepted. Only in 3 Provinces – United Province, Bombay and Madras – the League had some popularity. Its base was weak in Bengal, North-West Frontier Province and Punjab. (It is interesting to note that Pakistan was formed from these 3 Provinces.) Even in Sindh, League failed to form the government. League learned a lesson from this failure in the elections, It realized the importance of increasing its base and popularity among the Muslims. For that, it played the religious card.
In the meantime, Congress embarked on a programme to become more popular among Muslims. But it did not work. However, Congress tried to be a secular party. It began to propagate itself as the spokesperson for secularism. This secular stance of the Congress party frightened conservative Muslims and also some very rich Muslims who owned large estates.
