Subhas Chandra Bose resigned as the president of the Indian National Congress on this day. On May 3, he declared the formation of Forward Bloc.
At the first all-India conference of Forward Bloc, held in Nagpur from June 18 to June 22, 1940, Bose, in his presidential address, laid out a plan of action for winning “Purna Swaraj”, or complete freedom, at the earliest. Steps were to be taken to promote national unity at every level and units of local government were to be set up, starting from the village.
On the night of January 16-17, 1941, Netaji made his “Great Escape” and eventually reached Europe. He had been under house arrest with police posted outside his Elgin Road house. Forward Bloc was banned the next year. It re-established itself in independent India.