the future of the colonial arrangement. When Schuman gave the closing speech before a vote to confirm his cabinet, Apithy's questions were the only ones which he did not address at all. Apithy was infuriated by this perceived slight and so cast the whole seven votes of the IOM (including those of the three absent Upper Volta members) against the cabinet. Schuman lost by six votes and was replaced by Radical Party politician Henri Queuille. Queille made a point of meeting with Apithy before the presentation of his cabinet and answered all of his questions in his first speech to the National Assembly. In 1948, the IOM increased its membership in the French National Assembly by adding members from the RDA, the Socialist block, and MRP politicians. However, the IOM also saw a change in leadership as Apithy was replaced with Louis-Paul Aujoulat as a result of dissatisfaction by the Upper Volta members who wanted their votes cast to support the MRP government of Schuman. These changes brought the IOM closer to the MRP while the RDA remained tied to the Communist party. The antagonisms between the French parties resulted in antagonism between their African allies. The rise of the IOM meant that the RDA no longer had party affiliates and any significant presence in Togo or French Dahomey, and weakened colony affiliates elsewhere. At the same time that the IOM was increasing in strength, the Socialist party in Senegal saw a split between Guèye and Senghor with the later creating a new party, the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (, BDS), which he aligned with the IOM movement. This split made the alignment of parties in the National Assembly much more complex and allowed options for new groupings between the different factions. By 1948, the RDA had active parties as a primary faction in six of the colonies of French Africa: Ivory Coast, Middle Congo, Ubangi-Shari, Chad, Guinea, and in French Sudan. At the same time, it was actively suppressed in Upper Volta and French Sudan by the opposition parties. In response to these shifting political environments, the RDA held its second party congress in January 1949 in Treichville, Ivory Coast. The congress appointed Houphouët-Boigny as the President of the party and named d'Arboussier as the General Secretary. The main issue for debate was the alliance with the Communists in France with d'Arboussier arguing that the alliance was necessary but a