1957 Punjab Legislative Assembly election

1957
All 154 seats in the Punjab Legislative Assembly 78 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Partap Singh Kairon - Party INC ABJS Leader's seat Sirhali - Seats won 120 9 Seat change 24 9 Popular vote 3,612,709 654,395 Percentage 47.51% 8.61% Swing 10.82 3.05
Chief Minister before election Partap Singh Kairon INC Elected Chief Minister Partap Singh Kairon INC

Elections to the Second Punjab Legislative Assembly were held in 1957. 661 candidates contested for the 154 seats of the 121 constituencies in the Assembly. There were 21 two-member constituencies and 84 single-member constituencies.^[1]

State Reorganization

On 1 November 1956, under States Reorganisation Act, 1956, Patiala & East Punjab States Union was merged with Punjab.^[2] Thus the assembly constituencies were increased from 105 with 126 seats in 1952 to 121 with 154 seats in 1957 elections.

Constituencies

After the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the assembly constituencies were increased from 105 with 126 seats in 1952 to 121 with 154 seats in 1957 elections. 88 constituencies were single member constituencies while 33 were two-member constituencies. Out of 121 constituencies, 33 were reserved for Scheduled Tribes. There were 52,44,907 electors in single member constituencies, while 3,96,40,19 in two-member constituencies. Total 661 candidates were in fray for these 154 seats.^[1]

Political parties

Four national parties, Communist Party of India, Congress, Praja Socialist Party and Bharatiya Jana Sangha along with the state party Scheduled Caste Federation took part in the assembly election.^[1] Congress was the clear winner in the elections winning 77.92% of the total seats (i.~e. 120 seats) with a vote share of 47.51%. Partap Singh Kairon from the Congress party became the Chief Minister again.

Results

Summary of results of the 1957 Punjab Legislative Assembly election^[1]

	Political Party	Flag	Seats Contested	Won	Net Change in seats	% of Seats	Votes	Vote %	Change in vote %
	Indian National Congress		154	120	24	77.92	36,12,709	47.51	10.82
	Communist Party of India		72	6	2	3.90	10,30,898	13.56	9.67
	Bharatiya Jana Sangh		72	9	9	5.84	6,54,395	8.61	3.05
	Scheduled Caste Federation		24	5	5	3.25	4,10,364	5.40	3.43
	Praja Socialist Party		19	1	New	0.65	94,564	1.24	New
	Independent		319	13	4	8.44	18,00,960	23.69	N/A
			Total Seats	154 ( 28)	Voters	1,31,72,945	Turnout	76,03,890 (57.72%)

Elected members

See also

• Second Punjab Legislative Assembly
• 1957 elections in India
• 1952 Punjab Legislative Assembly election

References