Legislative Assembly elections was held in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

on 14 June 1977. The polls took place after the ousting of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

's government at the Centre. The Left Front won a landslide victory. The 1977 election marked the beginning of the 34-year Left Front rule in West Bengal, with

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 ...

leader Jyoti Basu leading the first Left Front cabinet. The election finally put to rest, the decade-long political instability that had begun since 1967.

Background

After the

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

won the national parliamentary election in March 1977 the new government in Delhi opted to dissolve the assemblies in nine states where the

Indian National Congress (R) Indian National Congress (Requisitionists) was created in 1969; it was created and led by Indira Gandhi. Initially this party was known as Congress (R), but it soon came to be generally known as the New Congress or Syndicate. The letter 'R' st ...

had lost the parliamentary polls and call for fresh elections. West Bengal was one of these states. The Congress(R) opposed the dissolution of the assemblies, the incumbent West Bengal Congress(R) government petitioned the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. The Supreme Court rejected the petition on 30 April 1977 and the West Bengal assembly was dissolved on order from the acting president B.D. Jatti. Ahead of the March 1977 parliamentary election the Left Front (a new alliance led by the

) and the Janata Party had contested with a seat-sharing agreement. With the assembly elections approaching, the two sides sought to build a seat-sharing agreement. But the negotiation turned fruitless, and the Left Front and Janata Party parted ways. The Left Front had offered the Janata Party 56% of the seats and the post as Chief Minister to Janata Party leader

Prafulla Chandra Sen Prafulla Chandra Sen (10 April 1897 – 25 September 1990) was an Indian politician and freedom fighter. He was the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1962 to 1967. Background Prafulla Chandra Sen was born in the village Senhati in the Khulna ...

, but the Janata Party insisted on 70% of the seats. There were 25,984,474 eligible voters, voter turn-out stood at 56.15%.

Campaign

In most areas the West Bengal assembly election saw a triangular contest between the Left Front, the Congress(R) and the Janata Party for the 294 seats across the constituency. The Left Front fielded 293 candidates; CPI(M) contested 224 seats, the All India Forward Bloc 36, the Revolutionary Socialist Party 23, the

Marxist Forward Bloc The Marxist Forward Bloc is a political party in India, a splinter group of the All India Forward Bloc. The MFB was formed in 1953 as Satyapriya Banerjee, a member of the AIFB Central Secretariat, Amar Bose, Suhurit Chaudhury and Ram Chatterji wer ...

3, the

Revolutionary Communist Party of India The Revolutionary Communist Party of India ( RCPI) is a political party in India. The party was founded as the Communist League by Saumyendranath Tagore in 1934, breaking away from the Communist Party of India (CPI). RCPI led armed uprisings aft ...

4, the

Biplobi Bangla Congress Biplobi Bangla Congress (English: Revolutionary Bengal Congress; BBC) is a political party in West Bengal, India. The party emerged as a splinter group of Bangla Congress ahead of the 1971 elections of West Bengal. This political Party was fou ...

2 and 1 Left Front supported independent. Congress(R) contested 290 seats and Janata Party 289 seats.

Results

The Left Front won the election, winning 231 out of the 294 seats.''New Left Review''.
RED BENGAL’S RISE AND FALL
'Election Commission of India.
STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF WEST BENGAL
' The electoral result came as a surprise to the Left Front itself, as it had offered 52% of the seats in the pre-electoral seat sharing talks with the Janata Party.''People's Democracy''

On 21 June 1977 the Left Front formed a government with Jyoti Basu as its Chief Minister.''People's Democracy''.
Thirty Years of Left Front Government in West Bengal
'' The first cabinet meeting of the Left Front government ordered the release of political prisoners.''Hindustan Times''.

' Provisional Central Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) leader

Santosh Rana Santosh Rana (1942 – 29 June 2019) was an Indian politician. In the 1960s, he was a prominent figure in the armed struggle of the Naxalites led by Charu Majumdar. Rana received Ananda Puraskar for his book ''Rajnitir Ek Jibon'' in 2018. A ...

was elected as an independent from

Gopiballavpur Gopiballavpur is a village and a gram panchayat in the Gopiballavpur I CD block in the Jhargram subdivision of the Jhargram district of West Bengal, India. History Earlier this area was a part of Mayurbhanj princely state. The place was earlie ...

.''Times of India''.
CPI(ML) MLA Santosh Rana quits party
'

References

{{West Bengal assembly elections

State Assembly elections in West Bengal 1970s in West Bengal