The Lucknow session of April 1936 presided by Jawaharlal Nehru Congress resolved to contest elections. Nehru in his presidential speech at the session advocated socialism and inducted Jayaprakash Narayan,Acharya Narendra Deo and Achyut Patwardhan in the Congress. During this session that the first meeting of the All India Kisan Sabha was held under the president ship of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati. The session passed some important resolutions such as the people of the princely state should have the same right of self determination as those of the rest of the India but the struggle for liberty was to be carried out by the people of the states themselves. The provincial units were asked to conduct agrarian enquiries. The elections to the provincial legislatures were held in January- February 1937.Congress won 715 out of 836 seats.
In five provinces of Madras, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Bihar and Orissa it had a clear majority. In NWFP, Assam and Bombay Congress emerged as the single largest party. In Bengal, Punjab and Sind the Congress did not have the majority. The Congress could not do well in the election in the upper house, as the franchise was limited to the upper strata only. In July 1937 the Congress formed ministries in the United Provinces, Central Provinces, Orissa, Bihar, Madras and Bombay. Later Assam and NWFP also came under the Congress rule. In Punjab, the Unionist Party and the Muslim League formed a coalition government.