The first three general elections in Independent India (1952, 1957 and 1962) were largely peaceful, including in West Bengal. However, by the 1967 elections, with the politics of the country in churn, things began to change. Political tensions rose, organised violence became more frequent, and within a few years, large parts of West Bengal had descended into what the Election Commission later described as a “reign of terror”.
The period between 1967 and 1972 marked a turning point in West Bengal’s politics. Violence entered electoral politics in a sustained way and continued for decades after.
Several political shifts took place before the 1967 elections. The Congress split in West Bengal and the Bangla Congress was formed. The Communist Party, too, split in 1964 into the CPI and the CPI(M). In the 1967 Assembly elections, the Congress won 127 seats, the Bangla Congress 34, the CPI(M) 43 and the CPI 16.
Ajoy Mukherjee of Bangla Congress became chief minister. After his government fell, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, an independent MLA, took over as CM. Frequent defections and unstable coalitions — a trend visible in other states too — led to repeated mid-term elections in West Bengal in 1969, 1971 and 1972. The year 1967 also saw the birth of the Naxalite movement in Naxalbari. Together, political instability and radical violence changed the nature of elections in the state.
Yet, the first signs were not dramatic. The 1967 and 1969 Assembly elections were largely peaceful. The Election Commission’s 1967 report noted: “It was indeed gratifying that a large State like West Bengal, where during the pre-election period tension was evidently acute in many places, should have been able to manage a smooth and peaceful poll on a single day.”
The situation changed sharply by 1971. Newspapers at the time carried daily reports of murders and attacks. That year, West Bengal went to mid-term Assembly polls alongside the Lok Sabha elections. The Election Commission fixed the polling date for the state for March 10, 1971, a few days after voting in the rest of the country, so that security forces could be concentrated there.
Then, as now, Opposition parties alleged that the one-day-poll was intentionally fixed by the Election Commission to make the “operation of chemicalised ballot papers” a success. The EC stuck to its position, recording that the state was passing through an “abnormal” phase marked by violence and killings by groups that did not believe in elections or the ballot box, including Naxalites. The poll panel later wrote that the state was in “consternation and extreme panic”. The Army had to be deployed in Kolkata and other parts of the state. Armed police forces were brought in from Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and even Punjab.
The situation became so serious that many polling and presiding officers approached the Calcutta High Court, saying they could not be forced to perform election duty under such conditions.
The Election Commission eventually held the polls in West Bengal on March 10, 1971.
But polling had to be countermanded in three Assembly constituencies — Dum Dum, Ukhra (SC) and Shampukur — after the murders of candidates.
Hemanta Kumar Basu, president of the All India Forward Bloc and candidate from Shampukur, was murdered on February 20, 1971. He was among the state’s most respected leaders. The election there was cancelled and a fresh poll ordered with Ajit Kumar Biswas nominated as the Forward Bloc’s candidate. The election was fixed for June 6. But days ahead of the election, on May 28, 1971, Biswas, too, was murdered, forcing the poll to be countermanded a second time.
Then, in Ukhra, Bangla Congress candidate Debdatta Mondal was murdered on February 17, 1971. And in Dum Dum, Congress (O) candidate Pijush Chandra Ghosh was murdered on March 5, 1971.
In all, four contesting candidates were killed during the election period in 1971 — something unprecedented in independent India at the time.
Even then, violence continued. The Election Commission warned in its report that “the application of physical force to influence the pattern and trend of voting” had become one of the most dangerous features of the election.
Fresh elections could not be completed after the second Shampukur murder because the West Bengal Assembly itself was dissolved on June 25, 1971. The state went to fresh elections again in 1972.
The 1972 elections showed that the violence had not ended. The Election Commission recorded disturbances in several polling stations, especially in areas around Kolkata. It also noted “tension and strained feelings among the various political parties and their workers and supporters”.
Large-scale rigging was later alleged by opposition parties in many constituencies, though the Election Commission recorded only a few formal complaints from voters who said they had been prevented from voting.
After the 1972 elections, Siddhartha Shankar Ray became chief minister. His tenure lasted until 1977, when the Left Front led by Jyoti Basu came to power. Ray remains the last Congress chief minister of West Bengal.
The writer is Senior Associate Editor, The Indian Express
(Left) Hemanta Kumar Basu, president of the All India Forward Bloc, was among those killed in 1971; in the 1972 elections that followed, Congress’s S S Ray became CM. (File) 
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