Elections to the Second Punjab Legislative Assembly were held in 1957. 661 candidates contested for the 154 seats of the 121 constituencies in the Assembly. There were 21 two-member constituencies and 84 single-member constituencies.

State Reorganization

On 1 November 1956, under

States Reorganisation Act, 1956 The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries of India's states and territories, organising them along linguistic lines. Although additional changes to India's state boundaries have been made since 1956, the States ...

Patiala & East Punjab States Union The Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) was a state of India, uniting eight princely states between 1948 and 1956. The capital and principal city was Patiala. The state covered an area of 26,208 km2. Shimla, Kasauli, Kandaghat and ...

was merged with

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

. Thus the assembly constituencies were increased from 105 with 126 seats in 1952 to 121 with 154 seats in 1957 elections.

Constituencies

After the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the assembly constituencies were increased from 105 with 126 seats in 1952 to 121 with 154 seats in 1957 elections. 88 constituencies were single member constituencies while 33 were two-member constituencies. Out of 121 constituencies, 33 were reserved for Scheduled Tribes. There were 52,44,907 electors in single member constituencies, while 3,96,40,19 in two-member constituencies. Total 661 candidates were in fray for these 154 seats.

Political parties

Four national parties,

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party, abbreviated as PSP, was an Indian political party. It was founded in 1952 when the Socialist Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, Rambriksh Benipuri, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh (Sinha), merged with the ...

and Bharatiya Jana Sangha along with the state party

Scheduled Caste Federation The Republican Party of India (RPI, often called the Republican Party or simply Republican) was a political party in India. It had its roots in the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation led by N. Sivaraj and B. R. Ambedkar. The Party was est ...

took part in the assembly election. Congress was the clear winner in the elections winning 77.92% of the total seats (i.~e. 120 seats) with a vote share of 47.51%.

Partap Singh Kairon Partap Singh Kairon (1 October 1901 – 6 February 1965) was the 3rd Chief Minister of the Punjab province (then comprising Punjab, Haryana and part of Himachal Pradesh), and is widely acknowledged as the architect of post-Independence Punjab P ...

from the Congress party became the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

again.

Results

!colspan=10, , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center;" ! class="unsortable" , ! Political Party !! Flag !! Seats
Contested !! Won !! Net Change
in seats !! % of
Seats ! Votes !! Vote % !! Change in
vote % , - style="background: #90EE90;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

, , 154 , , 120 , , 24 , , 77.92 , , 36,12,709 , , 47.51 , , 10.82 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , 72 , , 6 , , 2 , , 3.90 , , 10,30,898 , , 13.56 , , 9.67 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

, , 72 , , 9 , , 9 , , 5.84 , , 6,54,395 , , 8.61 , , 3.05 , - , bgcolor=#00FFFF, , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , 24 , , 5 , , 5 , , 3.25 , , 4,10,364 , , 5.40 , , 3.43 , - , bgcolor=#00B2B2, , style="text-align:left;" ,

, , 19 , , 1 , , ''New'' , , 0.65 , , 94,564 , , 1.24 , , ''New'' , - , , , 319 , , 13 , , 4 , , 8.44 , , 18,00,960 , , 23.69 , , N/A , - class="unsortable" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! colspan = 3, ! style="text-align:center;" , Total Seats !! 154 ( 28) !! style="text-align:center;" , Voters !! 1,31,72,945 !! style="text-align:center;" , Turnout !! colspan = 2, 76,03,890 (57.72%)

Elected members

References

{{Punjab (India) elections