1972 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election

The 1972 Maharashtra State Assembly election was held in March 1972 for the fourth term of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. A total of 270 seats were contested.^[1]

Maharashtra State Assembly Elections, 1972

← 1967 5 March 1972 1978 →
All 270 assembly constituencies to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly 136 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	60.63% (4.21%)
Majority party Minority party   INC Party INC PWPI Last election 203 seats, 47.03% 19 seats, 7.80% Seats won 222 7 Seat change 19 12 Popular vote 8,535,832 856,986 Percentage 56.36% 5.66% Swing 9.33% 2.14%
Chief Minister before election Vasantrao Naik INC Elected Chief Minister Vasantrao Naik INC

The Indian National Congress won the largest number of seats and a majority. Vasantrao Naik, the incumbent Chief Minister was reelected. S. K. Wankhede became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and Ramkrishna Vyankatesh Bet became Deputy Speaker. Dinkar Balu Patil became the leader of the opposition.^[2]

List of participating political parties

Party		Abbreviation
National Parties
	Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh	BJS
	Swatantra Party	SWA
	Indian National Congress	INC(R)
	Indian National Congress (Organisation)	INC(O)
	Socialist Party of India	SOP
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPM
	Communist Party of India	CPI
State Parties
	Indian Union Muslim League	IUML
	Bharatiya Kranti Dal	BKD
	Peasants and Workers Party	PWP
	All India Forward Bloc	AIFB
	Republican Party of India	RPI
Registered (Unrecognised) Parties
	Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha	HMS
	Shiv Sena	SHS
	Republican Party of India (Khobragade)	RPK/RPI(K)

Results

Party results

Summary of results of the Maharashtra State Assembly election, 1972

	Political Party	No. of candidates	No. of elected	Seat change	Number of Votes	% of Votes	Change in vote %
	Indian National Congress 222 / 270 (82%)	271	222	19	8,535,832	56.36%	9.33%
	Peasants and Workers Party of India 7 / 270 (3%)	58	7	12	856,986	5.66%	2.14%
	Bharatiya Jana Sangh 5 / 270 (2%)	122	5	1	947,266	6.25%	1.92%
	Samyukta Socialist Party/Socialist Party 3 / 270 (1%)	52	3	1	693,797	4.58%	0.03%
	Republican Party of India 2 / 270 (0.7%)	118	2	3	570,533	3.77%	2.89%
	Communist Party of India 2 / 270 (0.7%)	44	2	8	412,857	2.73%	2.14%
	All India Forward Bloc 2 / 270 (0.7%)	26	2	2	363,547	2.40%	2.40% (New Party)
	Shiv Sena 1 / 270 (0.4%)	26	1	1	279,210	1.84%	1.84% (New Party)
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) 1 / 270 (0.4%)	20	1		117,134	0.77%	0.31%
	Bharatiya Kranti Dal 1 / 270 (0.4%)	2	1	1	31,508	0.21%	0.21% (New Party)
	Indian Union Muslim League 1 / 270 (0.4%)	1	1	1	27,138	0.18%	0.18% (New Party)
	Republican Party of India (Khobragade)	56	0	(New Party)	202,935	1.34%	1.34% (New Party)
	Indian National Congress (Organisation)	49	0	(Split in INC)	162,433	1.07%	(Split in INC)
	Swatantra Party	5	0		14,269	0.09%	1.03%
	Independents 23 / 270 (9%)	343	23	7	1,920,667	12.68%	1.89%
	Total	1196	270		15,146,171	60.63%	4.21%

Winning candidates

The following is a partial list of winning candidates.^[3]

Constituency Name	Member of Legislative Assembly	Political party	Votes polled
Teosa	Sharad Tasre	Indian National Congress
Achalpur	N S Deshmukh	Indian National Congress
Amgaon	Swarupchand Ajmera	Indian National Congress
Dhobi Talav	Mohanlal Popat	Indian National Congress
Girgaon	Pramod Navalkar	Shiv Sena, w Indian National Congress support
Guhagar	Shridhar Natu	Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Khetwadi	Anant Namjoshi	Indian National Congress
Malad	Mrinal Gore	Socialist Party (India)
Malkapur	Arjun Wankhede	Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Maval	Krishnarao Bhegade	Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Nagpur Central	Navalchand Toksiya	Indian National Congress
Nagpur West	Sushila Balraj	Indian National Congress
Pusad	Vasantrao Naik	Indian National Congress
Sakoli	Martand Kapgate	Indian National Congress
Shrivardhan	A R Antulay	Indian National Congress
Shukrawar Peth	Rambhau Mhalgi	Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Talode	Dilwar Singh Padawi	Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Walva	Rajaram-bapu Patil	Indian National Congress

Results by region

Region	Total seats	Indian National Congress	Peasants and Workers Party of India	Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Western Maharashtra	70	70	-	-
Vidarbha	62	60	1	1
Marathwada	46	31	3	3
Thane+Konkan	39	37	1	-
Mumbai	36	14	-	-
North Maharashtra	35	14	2	1
Total[4]	288	222	7	5