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All 280 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 148 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1971. The assembly election was held alongside the 1971 Indian general election.[1]
Parties and coalitions
Ahead of the 1971 election the map of party coalitions was redrawn. The United Front had split into two after the resignation of its Chief Minister, Bangla Congress leader Ajoy Mukherjee. Mukherjee was attracted towards the policies of Indira Gandhi, who was also opposed to the old guard of the state Congress unit like Atulya Ghosh, Bijoy Singh Nahar & Prafulla Chandra Sen like him, which caused him to fall out with his deputy chief minister, CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu. The United Left Front, also known as the Six-Party Coalition, was led by the CPI(M) and included RSP, RCPI-Sudhindranath Kumar group, Biplobi Bangla Congress (a breakaway faction of the Bangla Congress opposed to Ajoy Mukherjee's rapprochement with Indira Gandhi), BPI-Nepal Bhattacharya group, WPI and the MFB.[2]
The United Left Democratic Front, also known as the Eight-Party Coalition, was led by the CPI and included AIFB, SUCI(C), the All India Gorkha League, BPI-Barada Mukutmoni group, RCPI-Anadi Das group, the SSP rebels & PSP.[2][3][4][5] 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).[4]
The Bangla Congress courted the Congress(R) for a seat-sharing alliance, but the Congress(R) rejected the offer.[5] For Congress(R) the Bangla Congress was considered too close to Congress(O).[5]
Violence
The electoral campaign was marred by violent incidents. The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) called for electoral boycott.[6][7] 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.[7] 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.[7]
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 All India Forward Bloc leader and Shyampukur constituency candidate Hemanta Kumar Basu was killed in broad daylight and on March 5, 1971 Pijush Chandra Ghosh (Congress(O) candidate in Dum Dum) was killed.[8] 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.[8]
Result by constituency
| No. | Constituency | Res. | United Left Front (Missing some independent candidates) |
United Left Democratic Front (Missing some candidates, such as some of the PSP dissidents) |
Congress (R) | Other (Listing the most-voted candidate outside the ULF/ULDF/Cong (R)) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Rank | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Rank | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Rank | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Rank | |||
| 1 | Mekliganj | SC | Kshir Prasad Barman | CPI(M) | 3996 | 8.82% | 3rd | Mihir Kumar Ray | FB | 19880 | 43.89% | Won | Mani Bhushan Roy | Cong. (R) | 15982 | 35.29% | 2nd | Tara Prasanna Ray Basunta | Cong. (O) | 3745 | 8.27% | 4th |
| 2 | Mathabhanga | SC | Dinesh Chandra Dakua | CPI(M) | 18386 | 38.89% | 2nd | Mukunda Nath Barman | FB | 2540 | 5.37% | 3rd | Birendra Nath Roy | Cong. (R) | 21302 | 45.06% | Won | Kumar Nidhi Narayan | Cong. (O) | 2198 | 4.65% | 4th |
| 3 | Cooch Behar West | SC | Sudhir Pramanik | CPI(M) | 13749 | 27.52% | 2nd | Dhajendra Barman | FB | 6592 | 13.20% | 4th | Rajani Das | Cong. (R) | 22565 | 45.17% | Won | Mubari Moham Paiowary | Cong. (O) | 7048 | 14.11% | 3rd |
| 4 | Sitai | Sahidar Ramhan | CPI(M) | 4329 | 9.24% | 4th | Adhyapak Hiften Nag | FB | 12244 | 26.13% | 2nd | Md. Fazle Haque | Cong. (R) | 20969 | 44.75% | Won | Monanath Roy Mandai | Cong. (O) | 9320 | 19.89% | 3rd | |
| 5 | Dinhata | Mani Gopal Roy | CPI(M) | 4929 | 9.18% | 3rd | Kamal Kanti Guha | FB | 21823 | 40.63% | 2nd | Jogesh Chandra Sarkar | Cong. (R) | 24249 | 45.14% | Won | Jahiruddin Mia | Cong. (O) | 2714 | 5.05% | 4th | |
| 6 | Cooch Behar North | Shirendra Narayan Choudhury | CPI(M) | 17800 | 34.66% | 2nd | Mohitlal Chakaraborty | FB | 6455 | 12.57% | 3rd | Sunil Kar | Cong. (R) | 25465 | 49.58% | Won | Dwijendra Arayan Dutt | Cong. (O) | 1075 | 2.09% | 4th | |
| 7 | Cooch Behar South | Gopal Chandra Saha | CPI(M) | 14988 | 30.25% | 2nd | Bimal Kanti Basu | FB | 8258 | 16.67% | 3rd | Santosh Kumar Roy | Cong. (R) | 21582 | 43.56% | Won | Sudhir Chandra Miyogi | Cong. (O) | 3182 | 6.42% | 4th | |
| 8 | Tufanganj | SC | Manindranath Barma | CPI(M) | 18573 | 34.21% | 2nd | Dol Mohan Pakhadhara | FB | 4556 | 8.39% | 3rd | Sishir Kumar Isore | Cong. (R) | 28678 | 52.82% | Won | Narendra Barman | Cong. (O) | 2488 | 4.58% | 4th |
| 9 | Kumargram | Netai Chandra Das | CPI(M) | 7984 | 21.11% | 2nd | Dhirendra Chandra Sarker | FB | 3261 | 8.62% | 5th | Pijush Kanti Mukherjee | Cong. (R) | 16619 | 43.94% | Won | Anima Hmare | Cong. (O) | 4089 | 10.81% | 3rd | |
| 10 | Kalchini | ST | Emanuonmelmon Kujur | FB | 2239 | 8.13% | 4th | Denis Lakra | Cong. (R) | 10681 | 38.76% | Won | John Arther Baxia Uraon | PSP | 8743 | 31.73% | 2nd | |||||
| 11 | Alipurduars | Ranjit Das Gupta | CPI(M) | 11219 | 22.95% | 2nd | Sachindra Nath Ganguly | SSP | 929 | 1.90% | 5th | Narayan Bhattacharya | Cong. (R) | 20455 | 41.84% | Won | Nani Bhattacharya | RSP | 10990 | 22.48% | 3rd | |
| 12 | Falakata | SC | Abhoya Charan Barman | CPI(M) | 11415 | 28.05% | 2nd | Nrikendra Narayan | SSP | 4885 | 12.00% | 3rd | Jagdananda Roy | Cong. (R) | 13410 | 32.95% | Won | Panchanan Mallick | Ind. | 4302 | 10.57% | 4th |
| 13 | Madarihat | ST | Bilash Bhagat | CPI(M) | 2917 | 7.86% | 5th | Mahali Budhram | SSP | 3444 | 9.28% | 4th | Paban Kumar Roy | Cong. (R) | 7569 | 20.39% | 3rd | A. H. Besterwitch | RSP | 12291 | 33.10% | Won |
| 14 | Dhupguri | Suresh Chandra Day | CPI(M) | 7054 | 17.85% | 3rd | Anildhar Guha Neogi | SSP | 11279 | 28.54% | 2nd | Bhawani Paul | Cong. (R) | 11471 | 29.03% | Won | Wayezuddin Ahmed | Ind. | 5321 | 13.47% | 4th | |
| 15 | Nagrakata | ST | Punai Oraon | CPI(M) | 22811 | 57.81% | Won | Azios Lakra | Cong. (R) | 9542 | 24.18% | 2nd | Soma Oraon | Ind. | 4962 | 12.58% | 3rd | |||||
| 16 | Mainaguri | SC | Nilcharan Roy | CPI(M) | 3851 | 10.54% | 4th | Basant Kumar Roy | CPI | 2328 | 6.37% | 6th | Bijoy Krishna Mohanta | Cong. (R) | 12781 | 34.97% | Won | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=1971_West_Bengal_Legislative_Assembly_election|||||