Legislative Assembly elections were held in the

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

in 1971. The assembly election was held alongside the

1971 Indian general election General elections were held in India between 1 and 10 March 1971 to elect members of the 5th Lok Sabha. They were the fifth general elections since independence in 1947. The 27 Indian states and union territories were represented by 518 consti ...

Parties and coalitions

Ahead of the 1971 election the map of party coalitions was redrawn. The

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

had split into two after the resignation of its Chief Minister. The United Left Front, also known as the Six-Party Coalition, was led by the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

and included the Revolutionary Communist Party of India (

Sudhindranath Kumar Sudhindranath Kumar (died 1984) was an Indian politician, belonging to the Revolutionary Communist Party of India. He served as general secretary of the party 1960–1984, represented Howrah Central constituency in the West Bengal Legislative ...

group), the Biplobi Bangla Congress, the Bolshevik Party of India (Nepal Bhattacharya group), the Workers Party of India and the Marxist Forward Bloc. The United Left Democratic Front, also known as the Eight-Party Coalition, was led by the Communist Party of India and included the

All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party ...

, the Socialist Unity Centre of India, the All India Gorkha League, the Bolshevik Party of India ( Barada Mukutmoni group), the RCPI (Anadi Das group), the

Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party (; SSP), was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1972, SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party. The General Secr ...

and the Praja Socialist Party (Rebel). The ULDF failed to reach a seat-sharing agreement with the Bangla Congress, but managed to agree to some seat-sharings with the

Congress(R) Indian National Congress (Requisitionists) was created in 1969; it was created and led by Indira Gandhi. Initially this party was known as Congress (R), but it soon came to be generally known as the New Congress or Syndicate. The letter 'R' st ...

. The Bangla Congress courted the Congress(R) for a seat-sharing alliance, but the Congress(R) rejected the offer. For Congress(R) the Bangla Congress was considered too close to

Congress(O) The Indian National Congress (Organisation) also known as Congress (O) or Syndicate/Old Congress was a political party in India formed when the Congress party split following the expulsion of Indira Gandhi. On 12 November 1969, the Prime Ministe ...

Violence

The electoral campaign was marred by violent incidents. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) called for electoral boycott. The CPI(M) on the other hand saw the CPI(ML) as a pawn of Congress(R) to sabotage its chances of winning power in the state. Across the state CPI(M) and CPI(ML) confronted each other; CPI(M) claimed that the CPI(ML) had killed some 200 of its cadres. Three candidates were killed during the electoral campaign; on February 17, 1971 Debdatta Mondal (Bangla Congress candidate in Ukhra) was killed, on February 20, 1971 the

leader and Shyampukur constituency candidate

Hemanta Kumar Basu Hemanta may refer to: * ''Hemanta'' (film), a 2016 Bengali language film *Hemanta Mukherjee metro station, a metro railway station in Kolkata, India People with the given name *Hemanta Bahadur B.C., Nepalese politician *Hemanta Dora, Indian foot ...

was killed in broad daylight and on March 5, 1971 Pijush Chandra Ghosh (Congress(O) candidate in Dum Dum) was killed. Elections were countermanded in these three constituencies, but in Shyampukur no election was held as Ajit Kumar Biswas (the candidate nominated by the Forward Bloc in lieu of Hemanta Kumar Basu) was killed as well.

Result by constituency

Election Commission of India.
West Bengal 1971
'

Outcome

Following the election, the Congress(R), the Bangla Congress and the ULDF came to an agreement (albeit without the approval of SUCI), that Congress(R) and Bangla Congress would form a government and ULDF would support it from outside. Two ULDF affiliates, SSP and Gorkha League, joined the government.

References

{{West Bengal assembly elections

State Assembly elections in West Bengal 1970s in West Bengal