Page 120 - Demo

At the time of Independence, the Congress Socialist Party was transformed into the Socialist Party by removing the word Congress from its name at a conference held at Kanpur though it continued to be a part of the Congress. In 1948, the Socialist Party of which Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia was a founder, dissociated itself from the Congress. When PVG Raju returned with his bride in December 1949, he plunged directly into politics and worked with Dr. Lohia.The Socialist Party merged with the Krishak Mazdoor Praja Party (KMPP) led by JB Kripalani in September 1952. Kripalani was appointed chairperson of the party. The Praja Socialist Party was created after the 1952 general elections with Lohia as the general secretary, and the three parties that created it together received I7.4 million votes in the elections, second only to the 47.6 million votes polled for Congress and far ahead of the 5.7 million votes which the Communists and their allies received. The Socialist Party alone, the largest of the three groups which formed the PSP, won 11 million votes. The fifties were a tempestuous decade for PVG Raju. His friendships with the Socialists of the time %u2013 JP, Acharya Narendra Deva, Yusuf Meherally, Asoka Mehta, Rammanohar Lohia, JB Kripalani and others deepened. Few know that the Raju couple named their son Ashok born in 1951 (Ashok Gajapathi Raju) after Asoka Mehta. Asoka Mehta was part of PVG Raju's sojourn from the Socialist Party to the Praja Socialist Party. In 1964, he joined the Congress, but was jailed during the Emergency.PVG Raju led the Inam Satyagraha at Karivena village in Kurnool in 1954.He was imprisoned for 40 days for 110