1969 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

1969 Bihar legislative assembly election

← 1967 9 February 1969 1972 →
318 seats to the Bihar Legislative Assembly 160 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Harihar Singh B. P. Mandal Party INC SSP ABJS Seats won 118 52 34 Popular vote 4,570,413 2,052,274 2,345,780 Percentage 30.46% 13.68% 15.63%   Fourth party Fifth party   Party CPI PSP Seats won 25 18 Popular vote 1,515,105 846,563 Percentage 10.10% 5.64%
CM before election President's rule N/A Elected CM Harihar Singh INC

An election was held in 1969 to elect members to the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Bihar. After the elections, the Congress emerged as the largest party, and Harihar Singh was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar. Three parties contested in a 'Triple Alliance'; the Loktantrik Congress Dal, the Praja Socialist Party and the Samyukta Socialist Party. The Triple Alliance divided 295 out of 318 constituencies between them, assigning 23 seats to the Communist Party of India.^[1]

1st Government

The Indian National Congress didn't win enough seats for an absolute majority and formed an alliance with 5 other parties, including the Janata Party, the Bharatiya Kranti Dal, the Bihar Prant Hul Jharkhand, the Shoshit Dal, the Swatantra Party and some Independents.^[2] However, it lost majority when Shoshit Dal withdrew support primarily on allegations on Janata Party head Kamakhya Narain Singh.

2nd Government

Bhola Paswan shastri, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly, of Loktantrik Congress Dal became CM, with support of SSP, PSP, CPI, Jan sangh, Loktantrik congress Dal, Shoshit Dal. Ministry proved to be the shortestever government in Bihar. Nine days after Its Installation, the third SVD Ministry resigned following the withdrawal of support by the Jan sangh, which put forward the view that no defector, as a matter of principle, be appointed Minister.^[3]

3rd Government

During President rule, in 1969, Congress split into Congress(O)- 50 MLAs and Congress(R) - 60 MLAs. Daroga Prasad Rai of Congress(R) became CM with support of PSP, CPI, Hul Jharkhand, Shoshit Dal and Bhartiya Kranti Dal. He constituted the Mungerilal commission, which later recommended OBC Reservation. His Ministry was dominated by the Backward castes. It fell after 10 months due to PSP and Shoshit Dal rebels.^[4]

4th Government

The new SVD, which consisted of SSP, rebel PSP, Jan sangh, Congress (O), Janata party, BKD, swatantra party, factions of the jharkhand Party, Shoshit Dal and Hul jharkhand, formed government under Karpoori Thakur of SSP as CM for 6 months.^[5]

5th Government

Bhola Paswan shastri once became CM, with support of Congress(R), shoshit Dal, Jharkhand party, PSP and CPI, but Congress(R) withdrew support by end of Dec 1971.^[3]

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Indian National Congress	4,570,413	30.46	118
	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	2,345,780	15.63	34
	Samyukta Socialist Party	2,052,274	13.68	52
	Communist Party of India	1,515,105	10.10	25
	Praja Socialist Party	846,563	5.64	18
	Loktantrik Congress Dal	573,344	3.82	9
	Shoshit Dal	552,764	3.68	6
	Janata Party	501,010	3.34	14
	Bharatiya Kranti Dal	301,010	2.01	6
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	187,541	1.25	3
	Swatantra Party	130,638	0.87	3
	Bihar Prant Hul Jharkhand	56,506	0.38	5
	Backward Classes Party of India	38,995	0.26	0
	Proutist Bloc of India	29,675	0.20	0
	Socialist Unity Centre of India	26,259	0.18	0
	All India Forward Bloc	17,452	0.12	1
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	6,310	0.04	0
	Republican Party of India	5,057	0.03	0
	Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha	2,161	0.01	0
	Bihar Prantiya Sudharavadi Party	855	0.01	0
	Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad	811	0.01	0
	Independents	1,243,106	8.29	24
Total		15,003,629	100.00	318
Valid votes		15,003,629	97.08
Invalid/blank votes		451,530	2.92
Total votes		15,455,159	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		29,274,251	52.79
Source: ECI[6]

List of Chief ministers