1977 elections in India

Elections in India in 1977 included Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) elections in several Indian states, including Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

Legislative Assembly elections

Bihar

	Seats Contested	Seats Won	Seats Change	Vote Share
Janata Party	311	214	214	42.7%
Indian National Congress	286	57	110	23.6%
Independent politician	2206	24	7	23.7%
Communist Party of India	73	21	14	7.0%
Communist Party of India	16	4	14	0.9%
Jharkhand Party	31	2	1	0.4%
Akhil Bharatiya Shoshit Samaj Dal	26	1	New	0.8%
All India Jharkhand Party	21	1	New	0.5%

Goa, Daman and Diu

Summary of results of the Goa Legislative Assembly election, 1977^[1]
Political Party	Seats contested	Seats won	Number of Votes	% of Votes	Seat change
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party	29	15	116,339	38.49%	3
Indian National Congress	27	10	87,461	28.94%	9
Janata Party	30	3	69,823	23.10%	3
Independents	57	2	28,022	9.27%	1
Total	145	30	302,237

Haryana



Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Janata Party	1,765,566	46.70	75
	Indian National Congress	648,422	17.15	3
	Vishal Haryana Party	225,478	5.96	5
	Communist Party of India	29,196	0.77	0
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	23,191	0.61	0
	Socialist Unity Center of India	2,916	0.08	0
	Republican Party of India	2,058	0.05	0
	Republican Party of India (Khobragade)	1,150	0.03	0
	Independents	1,082,982	28.64	7
Total		3,780,959	100.00	90

Valid votes		3,780,959	98.77
Invalid/blank votes		47,101	1.23
Total votes		3,828,060	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		5,938,821	64.46
Source: ECI:^[2]

Himachal Pradesh

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Janata Party	68	53	49.01
2	Indian National Congress	56	9	27.32
3	Independent	68	6	21.10
	Total		68

Source ^[3]

Jammu and Kashmir

Elections for the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir were held in June 1977,^[4] which are generally regarded as the first 'free and fair' elections in the state.^[5] Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, newly revived from the former Plebiscite Front, won an overwhelming majority and re-elected Sheikh Abdullah as the Chief Minister.^[6]

Kerala

**Party Wise Results**
Party	Seats	Alliance
Indian National Congress (INC)	38	United Front
Communist Party of India (CPI)	23
Kerala Congress (KEC)	20
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)	13
Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)	9
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	17	Opposition
Bhartiya Lok Dal (BLD)	6
All India Muslim League (Opposition) (AIML)	3
Kerala Congress (Pillai Group) (KCP)	2
Independent (IND)	9
Total	140

Madhya Pradesh

Source:^[7]

SN	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	Seats Changed	% Votes
1	Janata Party	319	230	N/A	47.28%
2	Indian National Congress (I)	320	84	-136	35.88%
3	Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad	4	1	N/A	2.88%
4	Independent	320	5	-13	15.35%
	Total		320

Nagaland



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	United Democratic Front	127,445	39.21	35	+10
	Indian National Congress	65,616	20.19	15	New
	National Convention of Nagaland	38,528	11.85	1	New
	Independents	93,405	28.74	9	–3
Total		324,994	100.00	60	0

Valid votes		324,994	98.07
Invalid/blank votes		6,407	1.93
Total votes		331,401	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		403,454	82.14
Source: ECI^[8]

Odisha

Party	No. of candidates	No. of elected	No. of votes	%
Janata Party	147	110	2527787	49.2%
Indian National Congress	146	26	1594505	31.0%
Independents	264	9	738545	14.4%
Communist Party of India	25	1	183485	3.6%
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	4	1	45219	0.9%
All India Jharkhand Party	10	0	25002	0.5%
Socialist Unity Centre of India	6	0	18773	0.4%
Jharkhand Party	2	0	7233	0.1%

Punjab

Party		contested	Seats won	change in seats	popular vote	%
	Shiromani Akali Dal	70	58	34	17,76,602	31.41%
	Janata Party	41	25	(new)	8,47,718	14.99%
	Indian National Congress	96	17	49	18,99,534	33.59%
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	8	8	7	1,98,144	3.50%
	Communist Party of India	18	7	3	3,72,711	6.59%
	Independents	435	2	1	5,41,958	9.58%
	Others	14	0	-	18,686	0.33%
Total^[9]		682	117		56,55,353

Rajasthan



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Janata Party	4,160,373	50.39	152	New
	Indian National Congress	2,599,772	31.49	41	–104
	Communist Party of India	91,640	1.11	1	–3
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	61,682	0.75	1	+1
	Indian Union Muslim League	21,889	0.27	0	New
	Vishal Haryana Party	1,290	0.02	0	New
	Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad	320	0.00	0	New
	Independents	1,319,053	15.98	5	–6
Total		8,256,019	100.00	200	+16

Valid votes		8,256,019	97.89
Invalid/blank votes		177,653	2.11
Total votes		8,433,672	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		15,494,289	54.43
Source: ECI^[10]

Tamil Nadu

The sixth legislative assembly election of Tamil Nadu was held on June 10, 1977. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won the election defeating its rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). M. G. Ramachandran (M.G.R), the AIADMK founder and a leading Tamil film actor, was sworn in as Chief Minister for the first time. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. Earlier on 17 October 1972, M.G.R had founded the AIADMK following his expulsion from the DMK after differences arose between him and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi. On 31 January 1976, Karunanidhi's government was dismissed by the central government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi citing corruption charges against Karunanidhi and President's rule was imposed on the state. Karunanidhi had been at odds with Indira Gandhi over his opposition to Emergency and allied with Janata Party founded by Jayaprakash Narayan. Meanwhile, M.G.R had developed a close relationship with Indira Gandhi and supported the Emergency. M.G.R remained as Chief Minister until his death in 1987, winning the next two elections held in 1980 and 1984.

Summary of the 1977 June Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election results
Alliance/Party	Seats won	Change	Popular Vote	Vote %	Adj. %^‡
AIADMK+ alliance	144	+142	5,734,692	33.5%
AIADMK	130	+130	5,194,876	30.4%	35.4%
CPI(M)	12	+12	477,835	2.8%	33.0%
FBL	1	–	35,361	0.2%	62.0%
IND	1	–	26,620	0.2%	42.9%
DMK	48	-136	4,258,771	24.9%
DMK	48	-136	4,258,771	24.9%	25.3%
Congress alliance	32	+24	3,491,490	20.4%
INC	27	+27	2,994,535	17.5%	20.8%
CPI	5	-3	496,955	2.9%	20.4%
Janata	10	+10	2,851,884	16.7%
JNP	10	+10	2,851,884	16.7%	16.8%
Others	1	-7	751,712	4.4%
IND	1	-7	751,712	4.4%	–
Total	234	–	17,108,146	100%	–

‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested.
Sources: Election Commission of India ^[11]

Tripura

Performance of the political parties in this election
Party	Seats Contested	Seats Won	No. of Votes	% of Votes	1972 Seats
Communist Party of India	10	0	6,266	0.84%	1
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	55	51	352,652	47.00%	16
Indian National Congress	60	0	133,240	17.76%	41
Janata Party	59	0	78,479	10.46%	-
All India Forward Bloc	1	1	7,800	1.04%	0
Revolutionary Socialist Party	2	2	12,446	1.66%	-
Proutist Bloc of India	6	0	2,139	0.29%	-
Congress for Democracy	59	0	66,913	9.08%	-
Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti	28	4	59,474	7.93%	0
Independents	48	2	30,862	4.11%	2
Total	328	60	750,271

^[12]

Uttar Pradesh



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Janata Party	11,351,359	47.76	352	New
	Indian National Congress	7,592,107	31.94	47	–168
	Communist Party of India	611,450	2.57	9	–7
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	136,850	0.58	1	–1
	Others	241,821	1.02	0	0
	Independents	3,832,832	16.13	16	+12
Total		23,766,419	100.00	425	+1

Valid votes		23,766,419	98.40
Invalid/blank votes		386,237	1.60
Total votes		24,152,656	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		52,345,606	46.14
Source: ECI^[13]

West Bengal

Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of West Bengal on 14 June 1977.^[14] The polls took place after the ousting of Indira Gandhi's government at the Centre. The Left Front won a landslide victory, much to the surprise of the left parties themselves. The 1977 election marked the beginning of the 34-year Left Front rule in West Bengal, with Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Jyoti Basu leading the first Left Front cabinet.

Party		Candidates	Seats	Votes	%
Left Front	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	224	178	5,080,828	35.46
	All India Forward Bloc	36	25	750,229	5.24
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	23	20	536,625	3.74
	Revolutionary Communist Party of India	4	3	75,156	0.52
	Marxist Forward Bloc	3	3	58,466	0.41
	Biplobi Bangla Congress	2	1	35,457	0.25
	LF independent	1	1	32,238	0.22
Janata Party		289	29	2,869,391	20.02
Indian National Congress (R)		290	20	3,298,063	23.02
Communist Party of India		63	2	375,560	2.62
Socialist Unity Centre of India		29	4	211,752	1.48
Indian Union Muslim League		32	1	54,942	0.38
Workers Party of India		2	1	29,221	0.20
Jharkhand Party		2	0	5,701	0.04
Republican Party of India		3	0	1,652	0.01
All India Gorkha League		2	0	810	0.01
Bharater Biplobi Communist Party		1	0	489	0.00
Independents		566	7	912,612	6.37
Total		1,572	294	14,329,201	100
Source: ECI

References

^ "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF GOA". Election Commission of India.
^ "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Haryana". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
^ STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
^ 1977 J&K elections
^ Guha 2008, Section 23.III.
^ Statistical report J&K 1977
^ "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA PRADESH" (PDF). eci.nic.in. Election Commission of India. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
^ "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
^ "Punjab Assembly Election Results in 1977". elections.in.
^ "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^ Election Commission of India. "1977 Election Statistical Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
^ "1977 Tripura Election result".
^ "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
^ West Bengal (India); Jatindra Chandra Sengupta (1978). West Bengal District Gazetteers: Nadiā. State editor, West Bengal District Gazetteers. p. 420.

Sources

Guha, Ramachandra (2008), India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, Pan Macmillan, ISBN 978-0330396110

External links

Election Commission of India

[pdf-1] "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF GOA". Election Commission of India.

[2] "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Haryana". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 12 September 2021.

[3] STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

[4] 1977 J&K elections

[FOOTNOTEGuha2008Section_23.III-5] Guha 2008, Section 23.III.

[6] Statistical report J&K 1977

[7] "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1977 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MADHYA PRADESH" (PDF). eci.nic.in. Election Commission of India. Retrieved 27 May 2018.

[8] "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 16 August 2021.

[9] "Punjab Assembly Election Results in 1977". elections.in.

[10] "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 26 December 2021.

[11] Election Commission of India. "1977 Election Statistical Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2009.

[12] "1977 Tripura Election result".

[13] "Statistical Report on General Election, 1977 to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 22 January 2022.

[(India)Sengupta1978-14] West Bengal (India); Jatindra Chandra Sengupta (1978). West Bengal District Gazetteers: Nadiā. State editor, West Bengal District Gazetteers. p. 420.

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