The West Bengal state assembly election of 1957 was part of a series of state assembly elections in 1957.

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 ...

, a portion of the Purnea district east of the river Mahananda and the Purulia sub-district of the Manbhum district in the south (except Char Thana) were transferred from

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

to West Bengal. Thus, assembly constituencies in West Bengal increased from 187 (238 seats) to 195 (252 seats) during 1957 assembly elections.

Alliances

On the political left two alliances had emerged; the United Left Election Committee (an alliance between CPI, PSP, AIFB, MFB and RSP) and the United Left Front (comprising the SUCI(C), the BPI, the RPI and the Democratic Vanguard). A third alliance was the

United Democratic People's Front The United Democratic People's Front was an electoral alliance in West Bengal, India, formed ahead of the 1957 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election. The front was composed of the Jana Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha, the Revolutionary Communist P ...

, consisting of BJS,

Hindu Mahasabha Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (), simply known as Hindu Mahasabha, is a Hindu nationalism, Hindu nationalist political party in India. Founded in 1915 by Madan Mohan Malviya, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating th ...

and RCPI.

Results

Alliance wise result

The election was won by the

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 ...

, who got a majority of its own in the assembly. The communists became the largest opposition party.

!colspan=10, , - ! Party ! No. of candidates ! No. of elected ! No. of votes ! % , - ,

, 251 , 152 , 4,830,992 , 46.14% , - ,

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 ...

, 103 , 46 , 1,865,106 , 17.81% , - ,

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 ...

, 67 , 21 , 1,031,392 , 9.85% , - , Forward Bloc , 26 , 8 , 425,318 , 4.06% , - , Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha , 37 , 0 , 225,126 , 2.15% , - ,

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 ...

, 33 , 0 , 102,477 , 0.98% , - , Independents , 418 , 25 , 1,989,392 , 19.00% , - , Total: , 935 , 252 , 10,469,803 ,

Elected members

References

{{West Bengal assembly elections

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...