The 1972 Maharashtra State Assembly election was held in March 1972 for the fourth term of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. A total of 270 seats were contested. 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 ...

won the largest number of seats and a majority.

Vasantrao Naik Vasantrao Phulsingh Naik (1 July 1913 – 18 August 1979) was an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1963 until 1975. Career He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh during 1952-1957, of ...

, the incumbent

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 ...

was reelected. S. K. Wankhede became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and Ramkrishna Vyankatesh Bet became Deputy Speaker. Dinkar Balu Patil became the leader of the opposition.

List of participating political parties

Results

Party results

!colspan=10, , - align=center !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" class="unsortable", !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center, Political Party
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , No. of candidates
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , No. of elected
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , Seat change
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , Number of Votes
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , % of Votes
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , Change in
vote % , - , , align="left",

, , 271, , 222, , 19, , 8,535,832, , 56.36%, , 9.33% , - , , align="left",

Peasants and Workers Party of India The Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) is a Marxist political party in Maharashtra, India. The party was founded in 1948, having its roots from the pre-Independence period and has around 10,000 members. The influence of the party is large ...

, , 58, , 7, , 12, , 856,986, , 5.66%, , 2.14% , - , , 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 ...

, , 122, , 5, , 1, , 947,266, , 6.25%, , 1.92% , - , , align="left",

Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party (; SSP), was a political party in India from 1964 to 1974. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1965, Ram Manohar Lohia merged his Socialist Party (Lohia) with SSP and conteste ...

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, , 52, , 3, , 1, , 693,797, , 4.58%, , 0.03% , - , , align="left",

Republican Party of India 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 e ...

, , 118, , 2, , 3, , 570,533, , 3.77%, , 2.89% , - , , align="left",

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 ...

, , 44, , 2, , 8, , 412,857, , 2.73%, , 2.14% , - , , align="left",

All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a Left-wing nationalism, left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a Political faction, faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose, and was strongest ...

, , 26, , 2, , 2, , 363,547, , 2.40%, , 2.40% ''(New Party)'' , - , , align="left",

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena (1966–2022) (; ; SS) was a right-wing Marathi regionalist Hindutva-based political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray, who was later succeeded by Uddhav Thackeray. The party is split into two parties: the Uddha ...

, , 26, , 1, , 1, , 279,210, , 1.84%, , 1.84% ''(New Party)'' , - , , align="left",

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

, , 20, , 1, , , , 117,134, , 0.77%, , 0.31% , - , , align="left",

Bharatiya Kranti Dal Bharatiya Kranti Dal was a political party in India, founded by Chaudhary Charan Singh, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The party was founded at a meeting in Lucknow in October 1967. After the 1977 general election, the successor party of the ...

, , 2, , 1, , 1, , 31,508, , 0.21%, , 0.21% ''(New Party)'' , - , , align="left",

Indian Union Muslim League Indian Union Muslim League (abbreviated as the IUML or Muslim League) is a political party primarily based in Kerala. It is recognised as a List of political parties in India, State Party in Kerala by the Election Commission of India. After the ...

, , 1, , 1, , 1, , 27,138, , 0.18%, , 0.18% ''(New Party)'' , - , , align="left",

Republican Party of India (Khobragade) The Republican Party of India (Khobragade) is a political party in India, a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and named for its leader, B. D. Khobragade. The National President is now Sunil Harishchand Ramteke. RPI(K) has now un ...

, 56 , 0 , ''(New Party)'' , 202,935 , 1.34% , 1.34% ''(New Party)'' , - , , align="left",

Indian National Congress (Organisation) 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 Minist ...

, 49 , 0 , ''(Split in INC)'' , 162,433 , 1.07% , ''(Split in INC)'' , - , , 5 , 0 , , 14,269 , 0.09% , 1.03% , - , , align="left", Independents, , 343, , 23, , 7, , 1,920,667, , 12.68%, , 1.89% , -style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , , align="left", Total, , 1196, , 270, , , , 15,146,171, , 60.63%, , 4.21% , -

Winning candidates

The following is a partial list of winning candidates.

Results by region

References

{{Maharashtra State Assembly election State Assembly elections in Maharashtra 1970s in Maharashtra

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...