In July 1939, he was elected a member of the MPRP Presidium, and was involved in the arrest of the 1921 revolutionary and deputy interior minister Darizavyn Losol in a plot led by dictator Khorloogiin Choibalsan.

Though not part of Choibalsan's inner circle, Damba was reelected to the presidium in April 1940 as Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal took power as MPRP general secretary.

[1][2] Damba’s tenure as first secretary saw the establishment of formal diplomatic relations with India in 1955, the first time a non-communist country had recognized Mongolia’s independence.

[3] Relations with China also improved, especially after Damba met personally with Mao Zedong in September 1956 in Beijing to discuss Chinese aid to Mongolia.

[4] In 1956, during the period of de-Stalinization in the USSR under Nikita Khrushchev, a special commission headed by Bazaryn Shirendev was formed to re-evaluate the country's Stalinist purges under Choibalsan.

At the end of March 1959, Damba was dismissed from the secretariat and the Politburo for "profound ideological-political backwardness, conservatism, and inertia" and for "opportunist tolerance of distortions and shortcomings".