Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra)
Indian political party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was a Democratic Socialist political party in India. The party was formed in 1981 when H.N Bahuguna came out of the then Janata Party and took the lead in forming it. The party was formed when the Bengali socialists, who had been part of Janata Party, were divided in two in the beginning of the 1980s. The other faction became the West Bengal Socialist Party. Afterwards, on 23 November 2025, DSP merged with All India Forward Bloc.[1]
Democratic Socialist Party | |
|---|---|
| |
| Abbreviation | DSP, DSP(PC) |
| Founder | Prabodh Chandra Sinha |
| Founded | 17 July 1981 |
| Dissolved | 23 November 2025 |
| Merged into | All India Forward Bloc |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Colours | Red |
| Alliance | Left Front (1982–2017) |
DSP was a part of the Left Front in West Bengal. The party leader Prabodh Chandra Sinha, was a Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Left Front government then. Sinha was elected to the state assembly in 2001 as an independent candidate from the Egra constituency. At that time DSP was not registered with the Election Commission of India. Later on, the party was once again registered, under the name Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra).[2] DSP had influence in parts of East Midnapore and West Midnapore. DSP had tried to contact the Socialist International, but have been denied membership on the grounds that they are a regional party.[3]
DSP won the Pingla constituency seat in the 2011 assembly poll in West Bengal as party's candidate Prof. Prabodh Sinha won the seat as Left Front candidate. The party's other candidate Prof. Hrishikesh Paria lost the Egra seat in East Midnapore. DSP had a zilla parishad seat in East Midnapore district. It had a municipal seat in the Egra municipality as of 2009 municipal polls. In 2010 Kolkata Municipal polls, the party was allotted 2 seats to contest as a LF partner in Ward Nos. 45 & 72 respectively. It lost both of them. It had won a Zilla Parishad seat in East Midnapore in 2008 panchayet polls. The party believed in the ideals of Jayaprakash Narain, Ram Manohar Lohia and Narendra Dev. Prabodh Sinha had won the Pingla seat in 2011 West Bengal legislative assembly elections but it lost the seat in 2016 polls.[4]
DSP merged with All India Forward Bloc on 23 November 2025.[5]