Who among the following was supported by Mahatma Gandhi for the post of…

Concept: In the Congress of the 1930s, the party's presidential election was formally decided by delegate votes, but Gandhi's endorsement carried decisive informal weight — a candidate backed by Gandhi and the Working Committee was treated as the party's real choice, and a rival who won the poll without that backing was seen as lacking the organisation's full sanction, which made his position politically fragile even after victory.

Application: The Indian National Congress held its presidential election for the 1939 term in January 1939, ahead of the Tripuri Session. Subhas Chandra Bose, the sitting Congress President, sought re-election in that poll; Gandhi and the Working Committee openly backed Pattabhi Sitaramaiya against him, viewing Bose's more radical line — including his openness to seeking outside support against British rule — as a break from the Gandhian strategy of the time. Bose won the poll by a narrow margin (1580 votes to 1377), but the divisive result cost him the Working Committee's cooperation: most members resigned within weeks of the Tripuri Session, leaving him without real organisational support and forcing his resignation from the presidency by April 1939. Gandhi's own remark on the result — that Sitaramaiya's defeat was "more mine than his" — makes explicit that Sitaramaiya was recognised as Gandhi's own nominee.

Cross-check — the four names by value:

• Subhas Chandra Bose — the sitting Congress President, who won re-election in the January 1939 presidential poll by a narrow margin ahead of the Tripuri Session.

• Maulana Azad — a senior Congress leader of the period who went on to hold the Congress presidency at the Ramgarh Session the following year (1940).

• Jawaharlal Nehru — had earlier served as Congress President (1929, 1936, 1937) but was not a candidate in the January 1939 presidential poll.

• Pattabhi Sitaramaiya — the candidate whom Gandhi and the Working Committee publicly backed in the January 1939 presidential poll, and whose narrow defeat Gandhi called "more mine than his."

Reading the endorsement and Gandhi's own comment together confirms Pattabhi Sitaramaiya as the candidate Gandhi supported for the Tripuri Session presidency.