Homi Daji
Member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly
In office
1957–1962
Succeeded byGangaram Tiwari
ConstituencyIndore City East
In office
1972–1977
Preceded byG. Tiwari
Succeeded byYagya Datt Sharma
ConstituencyIndore-2
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office
1962–1967
Preceded byKanhaiyalal Khadiwala
Succeeded byPrakash Chandra Sethi
ConstituencyIndore, Madhya Pradesh
Personal details
Born(1926-09-29)29 September 1926
Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died14 May 2009(2009-05-14) (aged 82)
Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Political partyCommunist Party of India
Spouse
Perin Daji
​
(m. 1950)​
Children1 Daughter & 1 Son
ParentFramroze Daji (father)
Alma materHolkar Science College, Indore
OccupationPolitician, Advocate
As of 28 June, 2018
Source: ["Biodata". Lok Sabha.]

Homi F. Daji (5 September 1926 – 14 May 2009) was a member of the 3rd Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Indore constituency of Madhya Pradesh and was a member of the Communist Party of India.[1][2][3]

Personal life

Daji hailed from the Parsi community.[4][5] Born in Bombay, he was the son of Framroze Daji.[1][6] He grew up in poverty.[2] Nevertheless, he managed to study at Holkar College in Indore and at Agra University, and obtained M.A. and LLB degrees.[1] He married Perin Daji on 21 May 1950.[1][2][6] The couple had one son and one daughter, both of whom died at an early age.[2][6]

Daji served as a member of the senate of Vikram University.[1]

State legislator

Daji contested the Indore B seat in the 1952 Madhya Bharat Legislative Assembly election. He finished in second place with 2,185 votes (10.89%) and was thus unsuccessful.[5][7] The constituency covered parts of southern Indore, where the 26-year old CPI candidate won more votes from areas such as Gadi Ada (with large Dalit and other lower caste electorates) and Muslim mahallas.[5] The relatively unknown Daji obtained more votes than the prominent Hindu Mahasabha leader G.V. Oke.[5]

Daji was elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Indore City East constituency in the 1957 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.[8] He obtained 16,702 votes (60.50%).[8] The constituency was seen as the 'labour seat' of the city.[9] Daji, leading the Mazdoor Union, defeated the Indore Mill Mazdoor Sangh general secretary Gangaram Tiwari.[9]

Parliamentarian

He was elected to the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament of India) from the Indore constituency in the 1962 Indian general election.[10] Whilst Daji was known as a communist leader, he contested on an independent ticket.[11] Daji obtained 95,682 votes (41.68%).[10] In the 3rd Lok Sabha, Daji was a member of the committees on Public Undertakings and Subordinate Legislation.[3] In 1967 he was named a member of the National Commission on Labour, the Study Group on Industrial Relations (Western Region).[12]

Daji lost the Indore seat to the Indian National Congress candidate P.C. Sethi in the 1967 Indian general election. Daji finished in second place with 100,350 votes (32.54%).[13] But whilst Sethi won in the rural areas of the constituency, Daji's vote share in the urban areas was 4.4 percent points higher than that of Sethi.[5] Daji tried to regain the Indore seat in the 1971 Indian general election. Daji finished in third place after the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Jan Sangh candidates. Daji obtained 64,430 votes (21.22%).[14]

Return to the Legislative Assembly

Daji re-entered the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in the 1972 election, being elected from the Indore-2 constituency.[15] He obtained 39,154 votes (79.54%), defeating the candidates of the BJS, the Hindu Mahasabha, and a number of independents.[15] Daji did not stand for re-election in the 1977 Legislative Assembly election.[16]

Later elections

As of 1977 Daji was the Madhya Pradesh secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress.[17]

Daji finished in third place in the Indore Lok Sabha constituency in the 1977 Indian general election, obtaining 29,725 votes (8.45%).[18]

In the 1980 Indian general election he contested the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, finishing in third place with 24,370 votes (6.31%).[19] In the same year he finished in second place in the Indore II constituency in the 1980 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, obtaining 15,247 votes (29.64%).[20]

Bhopal disaster

Daji referred to the 1984 Bhopal gas leak as "a callous man-made tragedy of unparalleled dimensions".[21]

In CPI leadership

As of 1987, Daji was part of the 9-member Central Executive Committee of CPI.[22] As of 1989 Daji was a member of a number of leadership bodies of CPI; Trade Union Department, the committee for the People's Publishing House and the Lawyers' Committee in Madhya Pradesh.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Lok Sabha. Members Bioprofile
  2. ^ a b c d Revolutionary Democracy. Biographical Tribute to Comrade Homi Daji Archived 22 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b "The Speaker Made References To The Passing Away Of Shri Girdhari Lal ... on 4 June, 2009"
  4. ^ Asghar Ali Engineer (2006). They Too Fought for India's Freedom: The Role of Minorities. Hope India Publications. p. 192. ISBN 978-81-7871-091-4.
  5. ^ a b c d e Rodney W. Jones (1974). Urban Politics in India: Area, Power, and Policy in a Penetrated System. University of California Press. pp. 92, 2 387. ISBN 978-0-520-02545-5.
  6. ^ a b c India. Parliament. Lok Sabha (2003). Indian Parliamentary Companion: Who's who of Members of Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha Secretariat. p. 109.
  7. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1951 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA BHARAT
  8. ^ a b Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1957 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA PRADESH
  9. ^ a b Donald B. Rosenthal (1976). The City in Indian politics. Thomson Press (India). pp. 80, 84, 90. ISBN 9780883868591.
  10. ^ a b Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1962 TO THE THIRD LOK SABHA
  11. ^ Myron Weiner; Rajni Kothari (1965). Indian voting behaviour: studies of the 1962 general elections. Firma K.L. Mukhopadhayay. p. 68.
  12. ^ Virendra Kumar (1975). Committees and Commissions in India, 1947–73: 1971–73. Concept Publishing Company. p. 63. ISBN 978-81-7022-197-5.
  13. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1967 TO THE FOURTH LOK SABHA Archived 18 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1971 TO THE FIFTH LOK SABHA
  15. ^ a b Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1972 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA PRADESH
  16. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA PRADESH
  17. ^ Ajit Roy (1977). The Marxist Review. Ajit Roy. p. 23.
  18. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1977 TO THE SIXTH LOK SABHA – VOLUME I (NATIONAL AND STATE ABSTRACTS & DETAILED RESULTS) Archived 18 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1980 TO THE SEVENTH LOK SABHA – VOLUME I (NATIONAL AND STATE ABSTRACTS & DETAILED RESULTS) Archived 18 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1980 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA PRADESH
  21. ^ "Gas poisoning". United India Periodicals. 27 (4): 26. May 1985.
  22. ^ Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Yearbook on International Communist Affairs series. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University. 1987. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-8179-8651-3.
  23. ^ Party Life. Communist Party of India. 1989. p. 7.
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