Indian general election, 1971 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

India held general elections to the 5th

5th Lok Sabha

List of Members of the 5th Lok Sabha, elected February-March 1971. The Lok Sabha is the lower house in the Parliament of India.- Important members :* Speaker:...

Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...

. This fifth general elections, which were conducted for 518 seats from 518 constituencies, represented 27 Indian states and union territories. Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi

Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...

steered the Congress

Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

to a landslide victory in 1971. Campaigning on the slogan of "garibi hatao" (eliminate poverty), she returned in Parliament with 352 seats, a marked improvement from the party's poor show of 283 in the previous polls.

Indira Gandhi took bold decisions during the India-Pakistan war in 1971 that resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh. India's victory in December 1971 was hailed by all Indians as it came in the face of diplomatic opposition from both China and the United States. There was hardly any international support from almost every other nation except the erstwhile Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries. Indira was now very popular in a lot of India so she easily won be a landslide.

For Indira and the Congress, there were other problems in store. Enormous economic cost of the Indo-Pak war, increase in world oil prices and, drop in industrial output added to the economic hardships.

On June 12, 1975, the Allahabad High Court invalidated her 1971 election on the grounds of electoral malpractices. Instead of resigning, Indira Gandhi declared an Emergency in the country and jailed the entire Opposition.

The Emergency lasted till March 1977 and in the General Elections held in 1977, she was routed by a coalition of parties called Janta Morcha. This was the first time that the Congress had faced a serious defeat.

Results by Party

Lok Sabha Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India... elections 1971 Electoral participation: 55,27%		%	545

Bharatiya Jana Sangh Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Bharatiya Jana Sangh existed from 1951 to 1980, whereupon it was succeeded by the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of India's largest political parties...	BJS	7.35	22
Communist Party of India Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...	CPI	4.37	23
Communist Party of India (Marxist) Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India is a political party in India. It has a strong presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of 2011, CPI is leading the state government in Tripura. It leads the Left Front coalition of leftist parties in various states and the national parliament of...	CPI(M)	5.12	25
Indian National Congress (Indira) Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...	INC(I)	43.68	352
Indian National Congress (Organization)	INC(O)	10.43	16
Praja Socialist Party Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party was an Indian political party in existence from 1952 to 1972. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh , merged with the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party led by J.B. Kripalani...	PSP	1.04	2
Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party , was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party in 1964. In 1972 SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party....	SSP	2.43	3
Swatantra Party Swatantra Party The Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...	SP	3.07	8
All Party Hill Leaders Conference	APHLC	0.06	1
All India Forward Bloc All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc is a leftwing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party after the independence of India...	AIFB	0.66	2
Bangla Congress Bangla Congress The Bangla Congress was a regional political party in the Indian state of West Bengal. It was formed through a split in the Indian National Congress in the 1960s and later co-governed with the Communist Party of India in two United Front governments, the first lasting from March 15, 1967 to...	BC	0.35	1
Bharatiya Kranti Dal Bharatiya Kranti Dal Bharatiya Kranti Dal was a political party in India, formed by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Charan Singh. The party was founded at a meeting in Lucknow in October 1967. After the 1977 general election, the party merged into the Janata Party....	BKD	2.18	1
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...	DMK	3.84	23
Indian Union Muslim League Indian Union Muslim League Indian Union Muslim League is a state political party in the state of Kerala, India. The chief support base of the party falls inside northern and central Kerala...	IUML	0.28	2
Jana Congress	JC	0.04	0
Chota Nagpur Santhal Parganas Janata Party	JP	0.09	0
Kerala Congress Kerala Congress The Kerala Congress is a recognized State political party in Kerala, India. The party was founded by K. M. George in October 1964 after a group of legislators decided to break from the Indian National Congress...	KC	0.37	3
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party was Goa's first ruling party after the end of Portuguese colonial rule in 1961. In the first elections held after India took over the former Portuguese colony, it ascended to power in December 1963 and stayed on, till being ousted from power by defections in early...	MGP	0.04	0
Naga Nationalist Organisation	NNO	0.04	0
Peasants and Workers Party of India Peasants and Workers Party of India Peasants and Workers Party of India , is a marxist political party in Maharashtra, India. The party was founded in 1949, having its roots from the pre-Independence period and has around 10,000 members. The influence of the party is largely limited to three districts.Member of legislative council of...	PWPI	0.51	0
Revolutionary Socialist Party Revolutionary Socialist Party (India) Revolutionary Socialist Party is a Marxist-Leninist political party in India. The party was founded on March 19, 1940 and has its roots in the Bengali liberation movement Anushilan Samiti and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army. The party got around 0,4% of the votes and three seats in the Lok...	RSP	0.49	3
Shiromani Akali Dal Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal , translation: Supreme Akali Party) is a Sikh nationalist political parties based in Punjab. The current party to be recognized by the Election Commission of India is the one led by Parkash Singh Badal...	SAD	0.87	1
United Front of Nagaland	UFN	0.06	1
United Goans (Sequiera Group)	UG(S)	0.04	1
Vishal Haryana	VH	0.24	1
Jharkhand Party Jharkhand Party Jharkhand Party, a political party in India. The party was founded on March 5, 1949 at a large conference in Ranchi. Jaipal Singh was elected president and Idsen Deba general secretary. JKP grew out of the demand for a separate Jharkhand state....	JP	0.19	1
Republican Party of India Republican Party of India The Republican Party of India is a political party in India. It has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by Dr. Ambedkar. The main base of RPI has traditionally been in Maharashtra....	RPI	0.1	1
Telangana Praja Samithi Telangana Praja Samithi Telangana Praja Samithi or Telangana Peoples Association was a Indian political party which fought for statehood for the Telangana region.-History:TPS was founded in 1969. The founding president of the party was Madan Mohan...	TPS	1.28	10
Utkal Congress Utkal Congress Utkal Congress was a political party in the Indian state of Orissa. UC was formed in 1969 when Biju Patnaik left Indian National Congress. After the 1971 Orissa elections UC took part in the Biswanath Das ministry in the state. In 1977 Utkal Congress merged into Janata Party....	UC	0.72	1
Independents	-	8.38	14
Nominated Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent... s	-	-	2

Results by Party

See also