1971 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election


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.

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. The United Left Front, also known as the Six-Party Coalition, was led by the Communist Party of India and included the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, the Biplobi Bangla Congress, the Bolshevik Party of India, 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 Socialist Unity Centre of India, the All India Gorkha League, the Bolshevik Party of India, the RCPI, the Samyukta Socialist Party and the Praja Socialist Party. The ULDF failed to reach a seat-sharing agreement with the Bangla Congress, but managed to agree to some seat-sharings with the Congress.
The Bangla Congress courted the Congress for a seat-sharing alliance, but the Congress rejected the offer. For Congress the Bangla Congress was considered too close to Congress.

Violence

The electoral campaign was marred by violent incidents. The Communist Party of India called for electoral boycott. The CPI on the other hand saw the CPI as a pawn of Congress to sabotage its chances of winning power in the state. Across the state CPI and CPI confronted each other; CPI claimed that the CPI had killed some 200 of its cadres.
Three candidates were killed during the electoral campaign; on February 17, 1971 Debdatta Mondal 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 was killed. Elections were countermanded in these three constituencies, but in Shyampukur no election was held as Ajit Kumar Biswas was killed as well.

Result by constituency

Outcome

Following the election, the Congress, the Bangla Congress and the ULDF came to an agreement, that Congress and Bangla Congress would form a government and ULDF would support it from outside. Two ULDF affiliates, SSP and Gorkha League, joined the government.