1971 Odisha Legislative Assembly election
Elections to the second Odisha Legislative Assembly were held in 1971.[1]
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 140 seats in the Odisha Legislative Assembly 71 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Constituencies
The elections were held for 140 seats. A total of 835 candidates contested for these 140 seats.
Political Parties
Three national parties, Communist Party of India, Indian National Congress and Swatantra Party along with the state party Utkal Congress took part in the assembly election. Congress party emerged again as the winner by winning 40% of the seats with a vote share of 28.74%. Harekrushna Mahatab again become the Chief Minister of the state.
Government
The United Front a coalition of Swatantra Party who won 36 Assembly seats and the new regional party Utkal Congress who won 33 Assembly seats formed the government under the leadership of Independent candidate Biswanath Das.[2]
Das resigned on June 14, 1972 due to defection of a large number of members from the ruling coalition and on same day Nandini Satpathy of the Indian National Congress formed the government and continued till March 1973. Nandini Satpathy ousted due in-fighting of the members after which there was imposition of President's rule in the state.[3][4]
Results
| Party | No. of candidates | No. of elected | No. of votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian National Congress (Indira) | 129 | 51 | 1240668 | 28.18% |
| Utkal Congress | 139 | 33 | 1055826 | 23.99% |
| Swatantra Party | 115 | 36 | 767815 | 17.44% |
| Praja Socialist Party | 50 | 4 | 267768 | 6.08% |
| Orissa Jana Congress | 66 | 1 | 227056 | 5.16% |
| Communist Party of India | 29 | 4 | 210811 | 4.79% |
| Indian National Congress (Organization) | 50 | 1 | 79460 | 1.81% |
| All India Jharkhand Party | 14 | 4 | 72291 | 1.64% |
| Samyukta Socialist Party | 15 | 0 | 53271 | 1.21% |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 11 | 2 | 52785 | 1.20% |
| Bharatiya Jana Sangh | 21 | 0 | 30824 | 0.70% |
| All India Forward Bloc | 4 | 0 | 8393 | 0,19% |
| Socialist Unity Centre of India | 1 | 0 | 2093 | 0.05% |
| Bihar Prant Hul Jharkhand | 1 | 0 | 532 | 0.01% |
| Independents | 190 | 4 | 332327 | 7.55% |
| Total: | 835 | 140 |
Winning candidates
By-elections
| Constituency | MLA before election | Party before election | Elected MLA | Party after election | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bhadrak | Harekrushna Mahatab | Indian National Congress | Balaram Sahoo | Utkal Congress | ||
| Rajanagar | Prahallad Mallick | Utkal Congress | Biju Patnaik | Utkal Congress | ||
| Rourkela | Shyam Sundar Mohapatra | Indian National Congress | Biswanath Das | Independent | ||
See also
- 1971 elections in India
- 1967 Odisha Legislative Assembly election
- 1974 Odisha Legislative Assembly election