1972 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

1972 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

11 March 1972

All 294 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
148 seats needed for a majority
Turnout60.82% ( 1.21 pp)
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
CPI
Leader Siddhartha Shankar Ray Biswanath Mukherjee Jyoti Basu
Party INC(R) CPI CPI(M)
Alliance INC(R) + CPI INC(R) + CPI CPI(M) + RSP + AIFB + MFB + SUCI + RCPI + WPI + BBC
Leader since 1972 1964 1964
Leader's seat Maldaha (by-elected) Medinipur Baranagar (lost)
Last election 29.19%, 105 seats 8.46%, 13 seats 32.86%, 113 seats
Seats won 216 35 14
Seat change 111 22 99
Popular vote 6,543,251 1,110,579 3,659,808
Percentage 49.08% 8.33% 27.45%
Swing 19.89 pp 0.13 pp 5.41 pp

Chief Minister before election

Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee
Bangla Congress

Chief Minister after election

Siddhartha Shankar Ray
INC(R)

Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal on March 11, 1972.