Legislative Assembly elections were 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 ...

in 1991. The election took place simultaneously with the 1991 Indian general election.''The Hindu''.
The case against simultaneous polls
' The term of the assembly elected in 1987 lasted until February 1992, but the West Bengal government asked the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

to arrange the election at an earlier date.

Parties contesting the election

Left Front

The campaign of the Left Front focused on issues relating to secularism, communal harmony and the

Mandal Commission The ''Mandal Commission'' or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educa ...

. The

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 ...

, the dominant partner in the Left Front, opted to deny reelection to 23 incumbent legislators, including one minister (Abdul Bari). In total CPI(M) fielded 204 candidates, All India Forward Bloc 34, RSP 23, CPI 12,

West Bengal Socialist Party West Bengal Socialist Party (WBSP) was a political party in the Indian state of West Bengal. WBSP was formed when the Bengali socialists in the then Janata Party split in the beginning of the 1980s (the other faction became the Democratic Soci ...

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 ...

2, DSP 2, RCPI 2, CRLI 1, JD 8 and the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League 1.

Congress

The Indian National Congress had seat-sharing arrangement, whereby INC contested 285 seats, the Jharkhand Party 4, the GNLF 3, UCPI 1 and 1 independent. Ahead of the 1991 elections, the

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 ...

brought back former Chief Minister

Siddhartha Shankar Ray Siddhartha Shankar Ray (20 October 1920 – 6 November 2010) was an Indian lawyer, diplomat and Indian National Congress politician from West Bengal. In his political career he held a number of offices, including Union Minister of Education (1 ...

into the party and appointed him head of the West Bengal party unit.''India Today''.
Assembly elections: Seeking a separate strategy
' Whilst the Indian National Congress was keen to exploit Ray's popularity, the CPI(M) organ ''

Ganashakti ''Ganashakti Patrika'' (1967-present) is an Indian Bengali daily newspaper published from Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Initially the paper started as an organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) West Bengal State Committee.

'' published articles on a daily basis reminding voters of Ray's role during the

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

. The Indian National Congress was suffering from internal divisions in West Bengal at the time of the election.''India Today''.
State assemblies: Of crucial importance
' The West Bengal state party HQ was attacked by disgruntled Congressmen. In the midst of a rally in

Diamond Harbour Diamond Harbour () is a town and a municipality of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River. It is the headquarters of the Diamond Harbour subdivision. Histor ...

, with

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

as speaker, rival Congress factions clashed. At the time, the

United Communist Party of India United Communist Party of India (UCPI), is a political party in India. It was formed in 1989 when Indian Communist Party led by Com. Mohit Sen along with Com Ramesh Sinha, M. Kalyanasundaram, K.Manickam, D. Pandian, and SU. Palanisamy; All ...

was a Congress ally. UCPI fielded a single candidate in Chandrakona constituency, who finished in second place.

Bharatiya Janata Party

The

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

fielded 291 candidates across the state, and managed to increase its share of votes from 0.51% in 1987 to 11.34%. This was the first time BJP fielded such a large number of candidates in West Bengal assembly elections. Rather than focusing primarily on the

Ayodhya Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya, also known as Sāketa, Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and ...

issue, which was highlighted in the BJP campaigns across the country, the West Bengal BJP campaign concentrated on agitations against immigration from

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. The campaign sought to invoke Bengali memories of

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

. Whilst support for BJP increased amongst Bengali communities, its main stronghold in the state remained non-Bengali populations in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(

Marwaris The Marwari or Marwadi (Hindi: मारवाड़ी, Urdu: مارواڑی) are an Indian ethnic group that originate from the Rajasthan region of India. Their language, also called Marwari, comes under the umbrella of Rajasthani languages, ...

and

Gujaratis The Gujarati people or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While G ...

Socialist Unity Centre of India

The

Socialist Unity Centre of India The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre", is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in India. The party was founded by Shib ...

fielded 59 candidates, contesting as independents. It had launched an electoral front ahead of the polls, along with some Naxalite factions, the

Workers Party of India Workers Party of India is a political party in the Indian state of West Bengal. WPI has its origin in the Democratic Vanguard in India. DV was formed in 1943 when a group led by Jiban Lal Chattopadhyay broke away from the Radical Democratic Par ...

, a RCPI faction and the

Bolshevik Party of India The Bolshevik Party of India (abbreviated BPI) is an Indian political party in India. The party was founded in 1939. The party had a certain role in the trade union movement in West Bengal and was briefly represented in the state government in 19 ...

. SUCI won two seats.

Results

The election was won by the Left Front, marking its fourth consecutive assembly election victory. The Left Front and allies won 245 out of the 294 seats.Election Commission of India.
STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1991 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF WEST BENGAL
'

References

External links

West Bangal General Legislative Election Results
at the ''

'' {{West Bengal assembly elections State Assembly elections in West Bengal 1990s in West Bengal