BJP Cites 1972 West Bengal Polls to Target Congress Over Past Rigging Claims

The 1972 West Bengal Assembly election has returned to political focus as the BJP invokes the historic contest to target the Congress party. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey recently pointed to the decades-old polls, drawing on accounts that the Congress used state power, intimidation and electoral malpractice to secure a sweeping victory. The BJP is now citing the Left's account to counter current Opposition accusations that it undermines democratic institutions.

The Results And Disparity

The March 1972 election yielded a surprisingly massive victory for the Congress, which won 216 of the total seats while its ally, the CPI, secured 35. The CPI(M), which had won 113 seats in the previous 1971 election, was reduced to just 14 seats despite contesting in an alliance that secured about 36 percent of the total votes. Writing in the Economic and Political Weekly on April 15, 1972, CPI(M) leader Biplab Dasgupta argued that the results did not reflect popular support, noting that the CPI(M) alone had secured about 28 percent of the vote share and should have won roughly 78 seats based on proportionality.

Violence And Allegations

The CPI(M) alleged systematic interference including booth capture, intimidation, use of firearms and bombs, and manipulated counting. Rabin Dev, a 23-year-old party worker at the time, recalled being chased and beaten by Congress workers near Surendranath College in the Sealdah area. Ramala Chakraborty, then involved with the student movement, recalled that a party meeting in Purba Sinthi on March 5, 1972, was attacked by police and Congress workers, leaving five comrades dead. The Election Commission recorded disturbances and tension at several polling stations, particularly around Kolkata, though it logged only a limited number of formal complaints from voters. The CPI(M) subsequently stayed away from the legislature for much of the term, denouncing the government as a semi-fascist takeover.

Context

The 1972 election took place during a turbulent decade in West Bengal marked by political instability, multiple changes of government, and the rise of the Naxalite movement. Historical disputes over the fairness of past elections frequently resurface in contemporary Indian politics as rival parties debate democratic records. Major political parties often draw on historical grievances from earlier decades to shape current electoral narratives.