[1] In the 1930s, the movement Jan Andolan had been founded by Sookdeo's elder brother Basdeo Bissoondoyal in order to educate the rural mass and was instrumental in the record high participation of working-class people at the 1948 Legislative Council general elections which were ground-breaking for being the first ever application of the principle of universal suffrage in Mauritius.
It also received the support of Dr Charles Edgar Millien, who was also advocating for democracy through his newspaper L'Oeuvre.
In 1946 a public meeting held by Guy Rozemont and Sookdeo Bissoondoyal was attended by a massive crowd in Port Louis at the Jardin de la Compagnie.
The death of IFB member of parliament and former Attorney General Lall Jugnauth in August 1970 triggered the 21 September 1970 by-elections in Constituency No.5 (Pamplemousses-Triolet) which resulted in the election of the first ever MMM parliamentarian Dev Virahsawmy.
Soon after the December 1976 elections the PMSD joined the IP coalition to remain in power until 1982, although the MMM had won most of the seats without forming any alliances with rival parties.