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 but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

won the largest number of seats and a majority.

Vasantrao Naik Vasantrao Phulsing Naik (1 July 1913 – 18 August 1979) was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1963 until 1975. To this date, he remains as the longest-serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Also, he had a c ...

, 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 terri ...

was reelected. S. K. Wankhede became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and Ramkrishna Vyankatesh Bet became Deputy Speaker.

Dinkar Balu Patil ''Dinkar Balu Patil'' (13 January 1926 – 24 June 2013) was an Indian politician and Member of Parliament. He was a senior member of the Peasants and Workers Party of India. Early life and education Patil was born on January 13, 1926, in ...

became the leader of the opposition.

List of participating political parties

Results

Party results

, - 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 is a Marxist political party in Maharashtra, India. The party was founded on 13.06.1948, having its roots from the pre-Independence period and has around 1,00,000 members. The influence of the party is lar ...

, , 58, , 7, , 12, , 856,986, , 5.66%, , 2.14% , - , , align="left",

Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, full name: Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh; ) (ISO 15919: '' Akhila Bhāratīya Jana Saṅgha '' ) was an Indian right wing political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the po ...

, , 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 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 ...

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 t ...

, , 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) is a political party in India. It has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. The 'Training School for Entrance to Polit ...

, , 118, , 2, , 3, , 570,533, , 3.77%, , 2.89% , - , , align="left", Communist Party of India, , 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 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 ...

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

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena (IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a Right-wing politics, right-wing to Far-right politics, far-right Marathi people, Marathi Regionalism (politics), regionalist and Hindu nationalism, Hindu ultranationalist political party in India f ...

, , 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)/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 ...

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

Bharatiya Kranti Dal Bharatiya Kranti Dal was a political party in India, formed by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Charan Singh. The party was founded at a meeting in Lucknow in October 1967. After the 1977 general election, the successor party of the BKD, Bharati ...

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

Indian Union Muslim League The Indian Union Muslim League (abbreviated as the I. U. M. L. or the League) is an Indian political party primarily based in the Indian state of Kerala. It is recognised as a State Party in Kerala by the Election Commission of India. The firs ...

, , 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 Harishchandra Ramteke. RPI(K) has now ...

, 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 winnning candidates.

Results by region

References

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