1969 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election
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9 February 1969
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All 280 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 141 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 66.51% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections were held in Indian state of West Bengal in February 1969 to elect 280 members to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.[1][2] United Front formed the government with Ajoy Mukherjee as the Chief Minister. United Front won a landslide 214 seats and 49.7% of the votes.[3]
In the previous assembly election, the Indian National Congress was defeated due to unpopularity of state PCC chief Bijoy Singh Nahar's autocratic style of functioning & chief minister Prafulla Chandra Sen's unpopular decision of implementing food rationing in the state to handle the food crisis caused by famine in the state. The first non-Congress government was formed on 1 March 1967 with Ajoy Mukherjee of Bangla Congress from the United Front (also consisting of CPI, AIFB & BPI) as the chief-minister & Jyoti Basu of CPI(M) from the United Left Front (also consisting of RSP, SUCI(C), SSP, MFB, WPI & RCPI) as the deputy chief minister. However, the coalition government soon fell apart due to the demand of land reforms raised by the Land Minister, CPI(M) leader Hare Krishna Konar, which threatened the rural landed-gentry support-base of the Bangla Congress & legalisation of gherao policy by Labour Minister, SUCI(C) leader Subodh Banerjee. Frequent strikes & protests against big businessmen and industrialists by Communist labour unions was causing them to gradually shift their operations out of the state. In spite of requests from industries minister, Bangla Congress leader Sushil Kumar Dhara, deputy chief-minister Basu refused to remove Banerjee from the labour ministry on grounds of CPI(M)'s ideological similarities with SUCI(C). So, Mukherjee himself sat on a hunger strike at Curzon Park (renamed as Surendranath Park) just in front of Writer's Building, the state secretariat building, demanding Banerjee's resignation. However, there he was heckled by cadres of CPI(M) & SUCI(C).[4]
There were further differences within the government over CPI(M)'s initial soft approach towards Naxalbari uprising on grounds of CPI(M)'s ideological similarities & shared adoration for Mao Zedong with the rebels. CPI(M) also organised strikes demanding the resignation of the Food Minister, independent MLA Prafulla Chandra Ghosh over his poor handling of the food crisis.
In midst of these events, Ghosh formed his own party 'Progressive Democratic Front' with 16 elected members of the Bangla Congress & sent a letter to the Governor Dharma Vira laying claim to the government with the support of the Congress. The Governor dissolved the Ajoy Mukherjee-Jyoti Basu led government without conducting a no-trust vote in the Legislative Assembly & sworn in Ghosh as the new chief minister on 21 November 1967. Mukherjee & Basu put aside their differences & together organised protests against Ghosh's government, leading to increasing political violence between the cadres of CPI(M) & Congress. In midst of the food crisis & escalating political violence among political parties and that between Naxalites & others in the state, President's Rule had to be introduced on 20 February 1968, following which, the previous legislative assembly was dissolved.[5]
