Which of the following factors contributed to the formation of the Forward Bloc by Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939?
- 1.Bose failed to win the confidence of Mahatma Gandhi.
- 2.The Congress Left was disunited and failed to support Bose.
- 3.The Communists did not support Bose in his endeavours.
- 4.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:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 1, 2 and 4
Bose won the 1939 Congress presidency against Gandhi's candidate, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, but could not work with the Gandhian leadership after the Tripuri session (the Pant resolution) and resigned. The Left did not rally behind him either: the Congress Socialist Party was divided and its majority stayed neutral. Isolated, he launched the Forward Bloc to unify the more radical elements.
- ✓ 1. Gandhi took Sitaramayya's defeat as his own, and at Tripuri the Pant resolution required Bose to choose his Working Committee in consultation with Gandhi; Bose resigned.
- ✓ 2. The Left did not act as one group at Tripuri; the Congress Socialist Party was divided over supporting Bose and its majority stayed neutral, leaving him without a united Left behind him.
- ✗ 3. UPSC's official key treats this statement as incorrect; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
- ✓ 4. UPSC's official key treats this statement as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
Remember · 1939: Bose beat Gandhi's nominee Pattabhi Sitaramayya, resigned over the Pant resolution at Tripuri, and founded the Forward Bloc to unify radical elements.
Sources
- PIB, Vice President's speech at the unveiling of Netaji's statue, Raj Bhavan, Chennai ↗ “Netaji founded the All India Forward Bloc in a bid to unify the more radical elements in the struggle for independence but was again incarcerated in 1940.”
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Subhas Chandra Bose ↗ · reference work “Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Gandhi’s favored candidate, in 1939 to become president of the Congress Party again. Tensions between Bose’s and Gandhi’s factions reached a peak during this period, and Bose resigned as a result.”
- Netaji Subhas Open University, PG study material (PGEG-07), on Subhas Chandra Bose ↗ · reference work “But he resigned from the Congress presidentship. This was due to the passage of the ‘‘Pant resolution’’ which required him to select the members of the Congress Working Committee in consultation with Mahatma Gandhi.”
- Asoke Mehta's ideas and thinking on socialism and social justice (University of North Bengal repository), section 6:5 Tripuri Congress and the Socialists ↗ · reference work “The Congress Socialist Party was divided regarding the issue of extending the support to Subhas Bose.”
Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·