ABSTRACT
The All-India Congress Committee endorsed the Kamaraj Plan on August 10. Many Union cabinet ministers and state chief ministers submitted their resignations, and the Working Committee set up three committees to deal with organisational matters, corruption charges and the collection of party funds, respectively. The Kamaraj Plan was activated on August 24, after many days of behind-the-scenes lobbying and bargaining. Its Gandhian rationale – that the Congress was not for people attracted merely by office and the power it brought, but was for people who respected the Congress’s tradition of service – disarmed the internal opposition, which could not afford to look as if it was acting in a self-interested manner. But with Nehru not getting any younger (he was almost 74), many Congressmen knew that these activities could affect the succession to Congress leadership.
