The Kerala Legislative Assembly election of 1967 was held to constitute the fourth assembly in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. This election, which was held after the

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

one ended up in no government formation, resulted in the newly formed

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political a ...

alliance forming the government, while the

INC Inc. or inc may refer to: * Incorporation (business), as a suffix indicating a corporation * ''Inc.'' (magazine), an American business magazine * Inc. No World, a Los Angeles-based band * Indian National Congress, a political party in India * I ...

, this time contesting alone was reduced to just 9 seats. E. M. S. Namboothiripad was sworn in as the Chief Minister on 6 March 1967.

Background

In the 1965 elections, no party was able to form a government in Kerala. No viable coalition took shape, and Kerala went back to President Rule for another 2 years. Kerala again went back to the polls in 1967. Both communist parties - CPI (M) and CPI - along with smaller parties including SSP and Muslim League contested this election as a United Front. A total of seven parties contested in the front, and the front was known as '' Saptakakshi Munnani''. Congress and Kerala Congress contested separately. The total polling percentage was 75.67%.

Constituencies

There were 133 constituencies in total, out of which 120 were General Category, 11 Scheduled Castes, and 2 Scheduled Tribe seats.

Political parties

The national parties contested were the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Indian National Congress, Praja Socialist Party, Sanghata Socialist Party, and Swatantra Party along with the state parties Indian Union Muslim League and Kerala Congress.

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center;" ! class="unsortable" , ! Political Party !! Flag !! Seats
Contested !! Won !! Net Change
in seats !! % of
Seats ! Votes !! Vote % !! Change in
vote % , - , , style="text-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 pol ...

, , 22 , , 0 , , NA , , 0 , , 55,584 , , 0.88 , , NA , - style="background: #90EE90;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

, 22 , , 19 , , 16 , , 14.29 , , 538,004 , , 8.57 , , 0.27 , - style="background: #90EE90;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

, 59 , , 52 , , 12 , , 39.10 , , 1,476,456 , , 23.51 , , 3.64 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

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 Em ...

, 133 , , 9 , , 27 , , 6.77 , , 2,789,556 , , 35.43 , , 1.88 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party, abbreviated as PSP, was an Indian political party. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, Rambriksh Benipuri, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh (Sinha), merged with the Kisan Mazdoo ...

, , 7 , , 0 , , NA , , 0 , , 13,991 , , 0.22 , , NA , - style="background: #90EE90;" , , style="text-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 Secret ...

, , 21 , , 19 , , 6 , , 14.29 , , 527,662 , , 8.4 , , 0.27 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party, that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly soci ...

, , 6 , , 0 , , NA , , 14.29 , , 13,105 , , 0.21 , , NA , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Kerala Congress Kerala Congress is an Indian political party founded at Kottayam, Kerala in October, 1964, by a block of former Indian National Congress leaders led by K. M. George. The party is primarily active in central Kerala. The establishment of Kerala ...

, , 61 , , 5 , , 1 , , 3.76 , , 475,172 , , 7.57 , , 5.01 , - style="background: #90EE90;" , , , 15 , , 14 , , 8 , , 10.53 , , 424,159 , , 6.75 , , 2.92 , - , , , 75 , , 15 , , 3 , , 11.28 , , 531,783 , , 8.47 , , 5.27 , - class="unsortable" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! colspan = 3, ! style="text-align:center;" , Total Seats !! 133 ( 0) !! style="text-align:center;" , Voters !! 8,613,658 !! style="text-align:center;" , Turnout !! colspan = 2, 6,518,272 (75.67%)

By Constituency

Government formation

The United Front performed spectacularly swept most of the seats. Congress and Kerala Congress were decimated with 9 and 5 seats respectively. E M S became the Chief Minister for the second time.

Second E. M. S. Namboodiripad Ministry The Council of Ministers (1967–69) of Legislative Assembly, Kerala state (better known as E. M. S. Namboodiripad ministry – second term) was the Council of Ministers, the executive wing of state government, in the Indian state of Kerala. The ...

had 14 members. For the first time in Kerala's history, the cabinet also included members from Muslim League.

K. Karunakaran Kannoth Karunakaran (5 July 1918 – 23 December 2010) was an Indian politician and member of the Indian National Congress (INC). He served as the Chief Minister of Kerala four times during the late 1970s through the mid 1990s. He is the ...

became the opposition leader in the assembly.

Fall of EMS Government

CPI (M) and CPI continued to have suspicions with each other. Due to the alleged high-handedness of CPI (M) in governance, most smaller parties were unsatisfied. This period also was marked by a series of student strikes and police firings. CPI, SSP & Muslim League eventually became a group within the front and worked together. Many ministers from the smaller parties resigned eventually, and many parties subsequently left the front. On 24 October 1969, EMS submitted resignation owing to the loss of majority in the assembly.

Achutha Menon Ministry

Within a week of the resignation of E M S Namboothiripad, M N Govindan Nair of CPI informed the Governor that their party was ready to form an alternate government. CPI formed a government with outside support from Congress. C. Achutha Menon became the Chief Minister of Kerala on 1969, 1 November. The First Achutha Menon Ministry had 8 members.

References

{{Kerala Niyamasabha elections

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...