Gangaram Tiwari

Gangaram Tiwari (born 1920) was an Indian politician and trade unionist. Tiwari was an active organizer of the Indore Mill Mazdoor Sangh (IMMS), a union of textile workers in Indore, in the 1940s and 1950s. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh from 1962 to 1972, and served as Minister for Public Works and Minister of Labour and Housing in the state government.

Youth Gangaram Tiwari was born in Inayati village (Karauli State) on December 25, 1920, the son of Ramprasad Tiwari. He hailed from a Kanyakubja Brahmin family from Uttar Pradesh.

He took part in the 1941 Kotawali Todo movement. In jail Tiwari befriended trade unionists V.V. Dravid and Ramsingh Bhai Verma, who recruited Tiwari to their cause. Tiwari was held at Indore and Mandleshwar jails between August 20, 1942 and November 29, 1943, being released after 15 months of imprisonment. Tiwari was installed as the Indore City Congress Committee president in 1955, and retained the role in 1856.

Tiwari contested the labour seat (Indore City East) in the 1957 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. Tiwari was the sole Congress Party candidate defeated in Indore.

1962 elections and split with Verma Tiwari won the Indore City East seat in the 1962 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, obtaining 18,617 votes (48.80%). In parallel Verma had contested the Indore Lok Sabha (parliament) seat, and lost. Tiwari got more votes than Verma in the Indore labour area. After Verma's parliamentary bid failure, conflict emerged between Verma and Dravid-Tiwari factions in IMMS.

An issue that aggravated conflict between Verma and Dravid-Tiwari was a secret deal struck between Verma and R.C. Jall (representing mill owner interests), whereby a 'four-loom system' would be introduced (the 'four-loom system' entailed higher pay managing more looms, but the introduction of the system also implied the dismissal of thousands of workers). Tiwari responded by going to the Industrial Court, which issued a stay order on Tiwari's expulsion from the IMMS. The court ordered that Tiwari remain as the IMMS secretary until the Court had taken a decision. In February 1964 the central leadership of INTUC dissolved the INTUC Madhya Pradesh and IMMS committees. After the ousting of Verma from the IMMS leadership and Tiwari having become an ally of Mishra, Tiwari was made a trustee of the Indore Improvement Trust in 1963 (and remained in this role until 1967). Tiwari was the first sitting Member of Legislative Assembly to hold this position.

Minister Tiwari was the sole Indore INTUC faction candidate in the 1967 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. Tiwari won the Indore labour seat (Indore-II), obtaining 19,735 votes (43.87%).

Tiwari held various leadership roles in the Indian National Congress and INTUC - He served as general secretary of INTUC in Madhya Pradesh, and was a member of the District Congress Committee, Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee and the All India Congress Committee. He would go on to be named Minister of Labour and Housing in the Madhya Pradesh state cabinet. The Chief Minister did not accept Tiwari's resignation, pending the conclusion of the investigation into the case. There were rumours that Cooperation Minister K.N. Pradhan, who had previously brokered a truce between Dravid and Tiwari, had been the architect of the 'nurse episode' plot. Tiwari was accused of fomenting labour unrest in Ujjain, where INTUC had entered into an agreement with the textile mill owners. At a INTUC meeting in Nagda in early June 1970 Tiwari and four others walked out in protest. K.N. Pradhan was given the Labour portfolio.