West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, 1987
Legislative Assembly elections was held in the Indian state of West Bengal in 1987.
Contestants
Left Front
The governing Left Front denied tickets to 62 sitting legislators.[1] In many cases CPI(M), the dominant force in the Left Front, was seeking to rejuvenate the legislature and fielded 35 student leaders as new candidates.[1]
The star campaigner of the Left Front was Chief Minister Jyoti Basu of CPI(M), who had pledged to visit all constituencies where CPI(M) had fielded candidates.[1] During the campaign Basu claimed that the Delhi government discriminated against West Bengal in allocation of resources.[1]
Congress(I)
'Natun Bangla' ('New Bengal') was the key slogan of the Congress(I) campaign.[1] The star campaigner of Congress(I) was Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was flown in from Delhi and toured the state.[1][2] At the time Gandhi enjoyed significant popularity, especially amonsgt urban upper-middle class sectors.[2] Gandhi was accompanied by West Bengal Congress(I) chief Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi on the campaign trail.[1] Striking a populist tone, Gandhi promised development in West Bengal and to create a million new jobs.[1]
The Congress(I) campaign, whilst being boosted by Gandhi, suffered from internal dissent in party ranks.[1] Congress(I) heavy-weights Subrata Mukherjee and Soumen Mitra led a revolt against the party leadership.[1] And Pranab Mukherjee had floated his Rashtriya Samajbadi Congress, breaking away from Congress(I).[1]
Gorkhaland issue
Whilst an accord had been struck between Gandhi and Gorkha National Liberation Front leader Subhash Ghisingh ahead of the polls, violence escalated in the Darjeeling hills.[1] In the run-up to the polls several policemen were killed in the areas.[1]
Results
The Left Front won 251 out of 294 seats. It obtained 13,918,403 votes (52.96% of the state-wide vote).[3]
| Party | Candidates | Seats | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left Front | Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 212 | 187 | 10,285,723 | 39.12 |
| All India Forward Bloc | 34 | 26 | 1,534,795 | 5.84 | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | 23 | 18 | 1,036,138 | 3.94 | |
| Communist Party of India | 12 | 11 | 503,854 | 1.92 | |
| Revolutionary Communist Party of India | 3 | 1 | 118,985 | 0.42 | |
| Marxist Forward Bloc | 2 | 2 | 107,732 | 0.41 | |
| Biplobi Bangla Congress | 1 | 0 | 42,261 | 0.16 | |
| West Bengal Socialist Party and Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra) |
7 | 6 | 288,915 | 1.10 | |
| Indian National Congress (I) | 294 | 40 | 10,989,520 | 41.81 | |
| Socialist Unity Centre of India | 46 | 2 | 237,674 | 0.90 | |
| Indian Union Muslim League | 36 | 1 | 162,850 | 0.62 | |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | 57 | 0 | 134,867 | 0.51 | |
| Janata Party | 30 | 0 | 41,475 | 0.16 | |
| Lok Dal | 18 | 0 | 10,032 | 0.04 | |
| Indian Congress (Socialist-Sarat Chandra Sinha) | 4 | 0 | 3,335 | 0.01 | |
| Independents | 718 | 0 | 784,937 | 2.99 | |
| Total | 1,497 | 294 | 26,283,093 | 100 | |
| Source: Election Commission of India | |||||
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 India Today. West Bengal: Basu vs Gandhi
- 1 2 Sumantra Bose (16 September 2013). Transforming India. Harvard University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-674-72819-6.
- ↑ Election Commission of India. STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1987 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF WEST BENGAL