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Bengal is unique

Anant Gaundalkar

West Bengal is unique in the history of Indian electoral politics. It has the distinction of being the only state in which the non-Congress party has captured more seats than the Congress in each of the last seven Lok Sabha elections. That party, of course, is the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Bengal already boasts of the longest-serving chief minister, Jyoti Basu who was first sworn in in July 1977.

The CPI-M has consistently overshadowed the Congress time and again since 1971. During the 1980 poll, it touched an all time high, winning 28 of the state's 42 seats. In the 1989 and 1991 elections, it bagged 27 seats while the Congress had to be satisfied with 4 and 5 seats respectively. There was a slight change in the equation during the 1996 poll. The Congress improved its tally by bagging 9 seats while the CPI-M lost four seats.

The party-wise position in Lok Sabha elections held in West Bengal:

Lok Sabha elections

Party	1952	1957	1962	1967	1971	1977	1980	1984	1989	1991	1996
Congress	24	23	22	14	13	3	4	16	4	5	9
Bharatiya Janata Party	2	--	--	--	--	15	--	--	--	--	--
Janata Dal	1	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Communist Party of India	5	6	9	5	3	--	3	3	3	3	3
Revolutionary Socialist Party	2	--	1	--	1	3	4	3	4	4	--
Communist Party of India-Marxist	--	2	--	5	20	17	28	18	27	27	23
Praja Socialist Party	--	2	--	1	1	--	--	--	--	--	4
Forward Bloc	--	--	1	2	--	3	3	2	3	3	3
Samyukta Socialist Party	--	--	1	1	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Amara Bengali	--	--	--	5	1	--	--	--	--	--	--
Gorkha National Liberation Front	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	1	--	--
Independents	--	3	2	7	1	1	-	--	--	--	--
Total Seats:	34	36	36	40	40	42	42	42	42	42	42

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