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All 280 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 141 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 66.51% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections were held in Indian state of West Bengal in February 1969 to elect 280 members to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.[1][2] United Front formed the government with Ajoy Mukherjee as the Chief Minister. United Front won a landslide 214 seats and 49.7% of the votes.[3]
Background
In the previous assembly election, the Indian National Congress was defeated due to unpopularity of state PCC chief Bijoy Singh Nahar's autocratic style of functioning & chief minister Prafulla Chandra Sen's unpopular decision of implementing food rationing in the state to handle the food crisis caused by famine in the state. The first non-Congress government was formed on 1 March 1967 with Ajoy Mukherjee of Bangla Congress from the United Front (also consisting of CPI, AIFB & BPI) as the chief-minister & Jyoti Basu of CPI(M) from the United Left Front (also consisting of RSP, SUCI(C), SSP, MFB, WPI & RCPI) as the deputy chief minister. However, the coalition government soon fell apart due to the demand of land reforms raised by the Land Minister, CPI(M) leader Hare Krishna Konar, which threatened the rural landed-gentry support-base of the Bangla Congress & legalisation of gherao policy by Labour Minister, SUCI(C) leader Subodh Banerjee. Frequent strikes & assaulting of big businessmen and industrialists by Communist labour unions was causing them to gradually shift their operations out of the state. In spite of requests from industries minister, Bangla Congress leader Sushil Kumar Dhara, deputy chief-minister Basu refused to remove Banerjee from the labour ministry on grounds of CPI(M)'s ideological similarities with SUCI(C). So, Mukherjee himself sat on a hunger strike at Curzon Park (renamed as Surendranath Park) just in front of Writer's Building, the state secretariat building, demanding Banerjee's resignation. However, there he was heckled by cadres of CPI(M) & SUCI(C).[4]
There were further differences within the government over CPI(M)'s initial soft approach towards Naxalbari uprising on grounds of CPI(M)'s ideological similarities & shared adoration for Mao Zedong with the rebels. CPI(M) also organised strikes demanding the resignation of the Food Minister, independent MLA Prafulla Chandra Ghosh over his poor handling of the food crisis.
In midst of these events, Ghosh formed his own party 'Progressive Democratic Front' with 16 elected members of the Bangla Congress & sent a letter to the Governor Dharma Vira laying claim to the government with the support of the Congress. The Governor dissolved the Ajoy Mukherjee-Jyoti Basu led government without conducting a no-trust vote in the Legislative Assembly & sworn in Ghosh as the new chief minister on 21 November 1967. Mukherjee & Basu put aside their differences & together organised protests against Ghosh's government, leading to increasing political violence between the cadres of CPI(M) & Congress. In midst of the food crisis & escalating political violence among political parties and that between Naxalites & others in the state, President's Rule had to be introduced on 20 February 1968, following which, the previous legislative assembly was dissolved.[5]
Results
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 2,676,981 | 19.97 | 80 |  37 | |
| Indian National Congress | 5,538,622 | 41.32 | 55 |  72 | |
| Bangla Congress | 1,094,654 | 8.17 | 33 | 1 | |
| Communist Party of India | 938,472 | 7.00 | 30 | 14 | |
| All India Forward Bloc | 671,664 | 5.01 | 21 | 8 | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party (India) | 375,983 | 2.80 | 12 | 6 | |
| Samyukta Socialist Party | 249,362 | 1.86 | 9 | 2 | |
| Socialist Unity Centre of India | 202,721 | 1.51 | 7 | 3 | |
| Praja Socialist Party | 175,890 | 1.31 | 5 | 2 | |
| Lok Sewak Sangh | 99,844 | 0.74 | 4 | NA | |
| Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | 71,665 | 0.53 | 4 | NA | |
| Progressive Muslim League (West Bengal) | 208,574 | 1.56 | 3 | NA | |
| Revolutionary Communist Party of India | 51,181 | 0.38 | 2 | NA | |
| Workers Party of India | 47,391 | 0.35 | 2 | NA | |
| Indian National Democratic Front | 118,650 | 0.89 | 1 | NA | |
| Marxist Forward Bloc | 27,143 | 0.20 | 1 | NA | |
| Others | 374,421 | 2.79 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 481,092 | 3.59 | 11 | 20 | |
| Total | 13,404,310 | 100.00 | 280 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 13,404,310 | 97.43 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 353,762 | 2.57 | |||
| Total votes | 13,758,072 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 20,685,110 | 66.51 | |||
| Source: ECI[6] | |||||
Elected members
| Constituency | Reserved for (SC/ST/None) |
Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mekliganj | None | Amarendra Nath Roy Prouhan | All India Forward Bloc | |
| Mathabhanga | SC | Birendra Nath Roy | Indian National Congress | |
| Cooch Behar West | SC | Prasenjit Barman | Indian National Congress | |
| Sitai | None | Md. Fazle Haque | Indian National Congress | |
| Dinhata | None | Animesh Mukharjee | Indian National Congress | |
| Cooch Behar North | None | Bimal Kanti Basu | All India Forward Bloc | |
| Cooch Behar South | None | Santosh Kumar Roy | Indian National Congress | |
| Tufanganj | SC | Akshay Kumar Barma | Indian National Congress | |
| Kumargram | None | Pijish Kanti Mukherjee | Indian National Congress | |
| Kalchini | ST | Denis Lakra | Indian National Congress | |
| Alipurduars | None | Nani Bhattacharya | Revolutionary Socialist Party | |
| Falakata | SC | Jagadananda Roy | Indian National Congress | |
| Madarihat | ST | A . H . Besterwitcoh | Revolutionary Socialist Party | |
| Dhupguri | None | Anildhar Guma Neogi | Samyukta Socialist Party | |
| Nagrakata | ST | Budhu Bhagat | Indian National Congress | |
| Mainaguri | SC | Jajneswar Ray | Indian National Congress | |
| Mal | ST | Antoni Topno | Indian National Congress | |
| Jalpaiguri | None | Nares Chandra Chakravorty | Communist Party of India | |
| Rajganj | SC | Kiran Chandra Roy | Indian National Congress | |
| Kalimpong | None | P . L . Subba | Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | |
| Darjeeling | None | Deo Prakash Rai | Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | |
| Jore Bungalow | None | Nandalal Gurung | Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | |
| Siliguri | None | Prem Thapa | Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | |
| Phansidewa | ST | Iswar Chandra Tirkey | Indian National Congress | |
| Chopra | None | Choudhury Abdul Karim | Indian National Democratic Front | |
| Goalpokhar | None | Mohamad Salimuddin | Praja Socialist Party | |
| Karandighi | None | Suresh Chandra Sinha | All India Forward Bloc | |
| Raiganj | None | Manash Roy | Communist Party of India | |
| Kaliaganj | SC | Barman Syama Prasad | Indian National Congress | |
| Itahar | None | Abedin Zainal | Indian National Congress | |
| Kushmandi | SC | Jatindra Mohan Roy | Indian National Congress | |
| Gangarampur | None | Ahindra Sarkar | Communist Party of India | |
| Kumarganj | None | Abinash Basu | Bangla Congress | |
| Balurghat | None | Mukal Basu | Revolutionary Socialist Party | |
| Tapan | ST | Nathaniel Murmu | Revolutionary Socialist Party | |
| Habibpur | ST | Nimai Chand Murmu | Communist Party of India | |
| Gajol | ST | Lakshan Saren | Indian National Congress | |
| Kharba | None | Golam Yazdani | Independent | |
| Harishchandrapur | None | Md. Elias Razi | Workers Party of India | |
| Ratua | None | Mohammad Ali | Independent | |
| Malda | None | Md. Gafurur Rahaman | Indian National Congress | |
| Englishbazar | None | Bimal Kanti Das | Communist Party of India | |
| Manikchak | None | Arun Chandra Jha | Indian National Congress | |
| Suzapur | None | A . B . A . G . Khan Choudhry | Indian National Congress | |
| Kaliachak | None | Shamsuddin Ahmad | Indian National Congress | |
| Farakka | None | Sk. Sahadat Hossain | Bangla Congress | |
| Suti | None | Md. Sohorab | Indian National Congress | |
| Jangipur | None | Abdul Haque | Revolutionary Socialist Party | |
| Sagardighi | SC | Kuber Chand Haldar | Bangla Congress | |
| Lalgola | None | Abdus Sattar | Indian National Congress | |
| Bhagabangola | None | Sailendra Nath Adhicary | Samyukta Socialist Party | |
| Nabagram | None | Birendra Narayan Roy | Independent | |