| Part ofa series on |
| Communist parties |
|---|
 |
Asia
|
Europe
|
Oceania
|
International organizations |
TheCommunist Party of India (CPI) is a political party inIndia. The CPI considers theDecember 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date.[6][7][8] Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led militant struggles such as thepeasant revolt in Telangana, organising guerrilla warfare against feudal lords.[9] The CPI was the main opposition party in India during the 1950s to 1960s.[10] In 1964,a split in the CPI led to the formation of theCommunist Party of India (Marxist), which eventually emerged as the larger of the two parties. CPI supported the rule ofIndira Gandhi, but later changed course and embraced left unity. CPI was part of the rulingUnited Front government from 1996 to 1998 and had two ministers under theDevegowda andGujral ministries.
As of 2025[update], the CPI has two members in theLok Sabha and two members in theRajya Sabha. In addition, it has 20MLAs across three states and one each in theMLCs ofBihar andTelangana. It is designated astate party by theElection Commission of India as of 2023[update] inTamil Nadu,Kerala, andManipur.[11] As of December 2023, the CPI is part of theLeft Democratic Front coalition that forms thestate government in Kerala. The CPI have fourCabinet Ministers anda Deputy Speaker in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, it is in power as part of theDravida Munnetra Kazhagam-ledSecular Progressive Alliance coalition.
The CPI is officially known inHindi as theBhāratīya Kamyunisṭ Pārṭī (भारतीय साम्यवादी पार्टी), orBhaKaPa (भाकपा).
The Communist Party of India (CPI) was formed on 26 December 1925 at thefirst Party Conference inKanpur, which was then known asCawnpore.S. V. Ghate was the first General Secretary of the CPI. There were many communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts of the world, a group formed inTashkent, Uzbekistan made contacts with theAnushilan andJugantar groups inBengal, and small communist groups were formed inBombay (led byShripad Amrit Dange),Madras (led bySingaravelar), theUnited Provinces (led byShaukat Usmani),Punjab,Sindh (led byGhulam Hussain),Orissa (led byBhagabati Charan Panigrahi) andBengal (led byMuzaffar Ahmad).
The CPI's year of formation is disputed. TheCommunist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), which split from the CPI in 1964, considers 17 October 1920 to be the CPI's founding day. On that day,M. N. Roy, Evelyn Trent-Roy,Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingov, Mohd. Ali, Mohamad Shafiq, andM. P. T. Acharya met in Tashkent to form the communist movement in India. Neither the 1920 nor 1925 dates are considered significant by theCommunist International, because the CPI did not adopt a party constitution on either occasion, which was one of the main prerequisites for membership in theinternational.[12]
During the 1920s and the early 1930s the party was poorly organised, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national co-ordination. The government banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party difficult. Between 1921 and 1924, there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement: thePeshawar Conspiracy Cases, theMeerut Conspiracy Case, and theKanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian-trainedmuhajir communists were put on trial. However, the Kanpur trial had more political impact. On 17 March 1924, Dange, M. N. Roy, Ahmad, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani,Malayapuram Singaravelu, Ghulam Hussain, and R. C. Sharma were charged, in the Kanpur case. The specific pip charge was that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by a violent revolution." Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India.[13]
Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M. N. Roy was in Germany and R. C. Sharma in FrenchPondichéry, and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians inKabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmad, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to a larger Indian audience.[13] Dange was released from prison in 1927. Rahul Dev Pal was a prominent communist leader.
On 26 December 1925, a communist conference was organised in Kanpur.[14] Government authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference. The conference was convened by a man calledSatya Bhakta. At the conference Satyabhakta argued for anational communism and against subordination under theComintern. Being outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left the conference venue in protest. The conference adopted the name 'Communist Party of India'. Groups such asLabour Kisan Party of Hindustan (LKPH) dissolved into the CPI.[15] The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character anyway, was effectively substituted by the organisation now operating inside India.
Soon after the 1926 conference of theWorkers and Peasants Party (WPP) of Bengal, the underground CPI directed its members to join the provincial WPPs. All open communist activities were carried out through Workers and Peasants parties.[16]
The sixth congress of the Communist International met in 1928. In 1927 theKuomintang had turned on theChinese communists, which led to a review of the policy on forming alliances with the national bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. TheColonial theses of the sixth Comintern congress called upon the Indian communists to combat the "national-reformist leaders" and to "unmask the national reformism of theIndian National Congress and oppose all phrases of the Swarajists, Gandhists, etc. about passive resistance".[17] The congress did however differentiate between the character of the Chinese Kuomintang and the IndianSwaraj Party, considering the latter as neither a reliable ally nor a direct enemy. The congress called on the Indian communists to use the contradictions between the national bourgeoisie and the British imperialists.[18] The congress also denounced the WPP. The Tenth Plenum of the executive committee of the Communist International, 3–19 July 1929, directed the Indian communists to break with WPP. When the communists deserted it, the WPP fell apart.[19]
On 20 March 1929, arrests against the WPP, CPI and other labour leaders were made in several parts of India, in what became known as the Meerut Conspiracy Case. The communist leadership was now put behind bars. The trial proceedings were to last for four years.[20][21]
As of 1934, the main centres of activity of CPI were Bombay, Calcutta and Punjab. The party had also begun extending its activities to Madras. A group of Andhra and Tamil students, amongst themPuchalapalli Sundarayya, were recruited to the CPI byAmir Hyder Khan.[22] The party was reorganised in 1933, after the communist leaders from the Meerut trials were released. A central committee of the party was set up. In 1934, the party was accepted as the Indian section of the Communist International.[23]
When Indian left-wing elements formed theCongress Socialist Party in 1934, the CPI branded it associal fascist.[17]
TheLeague Against Gandhism, initially known as the Gandhi Boycott Committee, was a political organisation inCalcutta, founded by the underground Communist Party of India and others to launch militantanti-Imperialist activities. The group took the nameLeague Against Gandhism in 1934.[24]
In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern towardpopular front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, which worked as the left-wing of Congress. Through joining CSP, the CPI accepted the CSP demand for a Constituent Assembly, which it had denounced two years before. The CPI however analysed that the demand for a Constituent Assembly would not be a substitute forsoviets.[25]
In July 1937, a clandestine meeting was held atCalicut.[26] Five persons were present at the meeting,P. Krishna Pillai,K. Damodaran,E. M. S. Namboodiripad,N. C. Sekhar andS.V. Ghate. The first four were members of the CSP in Kerala. The CPI inKerala was formed on 31 December 1939 with the Pinarayi Conference.[27] The latter, Ghate, was a CPI Central Committee member, who had arrived from Madras.[28] Contacts between the CSP in Kerala and the CPI had begun in 1935, when P. Sundarayya (CC member of CPI, based in Madras at the time) met with E. M. S. Namboodiripad and Krishna Pillai. Sundarayya and Ghate visited Kerala at several times and met with the CSP leaders there. The contacts were facilitated through the national meetings of the Congress, CSP andAll India Kisan Sabha.[22]
In 1936–1937, the co-operation between socialists and communists reached its peak. At the 2nd congress of the CSP, held inMeerut in January 1936, a thesis was adopted which declared that there was a need to build 'a united Indian Socialist Party based onMarxism-Leninism'.[29] At the 3rd CSP congress, held inFaizpur, several communists were included into the CSP National Executive Committee.[30]
Two communists, E. M. S. Namboodiripad andZ. A. Ahmed, became All India joint secretaries of CSP. The CPI also had two other members inside the CSP executive.[25]
On the occasion of the 1940 Ramgarh Congress Conference, CPI released a declaration calledProletarian Path, which sought to use the weakened state of the British Empire in the time of war and gave a call forgeneral strike, no-tax, no-rent policies and mobilising for an armed revolutionary uprising. The National Executive of the CSP assembled atRamgarh took a decision that all communists were expelled from CSP.[31]
In July 1942, the CPI was legalised, as a result of Britain and the Soviet Union becoming allies against Nazi Germany.[32] Communists strengthened their control over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were politically cornered for their opposition to theQuit India Movement.[33][34]
CPI contested the Provincial Legislative Assembly elections of 1946 on its own. It had candidates in 108 out of 1585 seats, winning in eight seats. In total, the CPI vote counted 666,723, which should be seen with the backdrop that 86% of the adult population of India lacked voting rights. The party had contested three seats in Bengal, and won all of them. One CPI candidate,Somnath Lahiri, was elected to the Constituent Assembly.[35]
The Communist Party of Indiaopposed the partition of India and did not participate in theIndependence Day celebrations of 15 August 1947 in protest at the division of the country.[36]
During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left-wing and right-wing positions. In February 1948, at the2nd Party Congress in Calcutta,B. T. Ranadive (BTR) was elected General Secretary of the party.[37] The conference adopted the "Programme of Democratic Revolution", which included the first mention of struggle againstcaste injustice in a CPI document.[38]
In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place inTripura,Telangana and Kerala.[39] The most importantrebellion took place in Telangana, against theNizam ofHyderabad. The communists built up a people's army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle. BTR was deposed and denounced as aleft adventurist.
InManipur, the party became a force to reckon with through the agrarian struggles led byJananeta Irawat Singh. Singh had joined CPI in 1946.[40] At the 1951 party congress, the main slogan was changed fromPeople's Democracy toNational Democracy.[41]
A Communist Party was founded in Bihar in 1939. Post independence, the Communist Party achieved success in Bihar (Bihar and Jharkhand). The Communist Party conducted movements forland reform, and the trade union movement was at its peak in Bihar in the 1960s–1980s. The achievements of communists in Bihar placed the communists in the forefront of the left movement in India.[42] Bihar produced some of the most well-known leaders like Kishan leadersSahajanand Saraswati andKaryanand Sharma, intellectuals likeJagannath Sarkar,Yogendra Sharma, andIndradeep Sinha, mass leaders likeChandrasekhar Singh andSunil Mukherjee, trade union leaders likeKedar Das and others.[43] In theMithila region of Bihar,Bhogendra Jha led the fight against theMahants andZamindars. He later went on the win Parliamentary elections and was MP for seven terms.[44][45]
In the early 1950s, young communist leadership was uniting textile workers, bank employees and unorganised sector workers to ensure mass support in north India. National leaders likeShripad Amrit Dange,Chandra Rajeswara Rao, andP. K. Vasudevan Nair were encouraging them and supporting the idea despite their differences on the execution. Firebrand Communist leaders likeHomi F. Daji,Guru Radha Kishan,H. L. Parwana,Sarjoo Pandey,Darshan Singh Canadian andAvtaar Singh Malhotra were emerging between the masses and the working class in particular.[46] This was the first leadership of communists that was very close to the masses and people consider them champions of the cause of the workers and the poor.
In 1952, CPI became the first leading opposition party in thefirst Lok Sabha, while the Indian National Congress was in power.[47]
In the1952 Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly election, the Communist Party was banned, so it couldn't take part in the election process.[48] In the general elections in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party. In 1957, the CPI won the state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that an opposition party won control over an Indian state. E. M. S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister. At the 1957 international meeting of Communist parties in Moscow, theChinese Communist Party directed criticism at the CPI for having formed a ministry in Kerala.[49]
The CPI was involved in theLiberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Along with its units in Bombay, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, the party decided to begin armed operations in the area in July 1954. BothDadra andNagar Haveli were liberated by the beginning of August. Communist leaders likeNarayan Palekar, Parulekar, Vaz, Rodriguez, Cunha, and others emerged as the Communist leaders of the movement. Thereafter, the struggle to liberateDaman and Diu was begun by the Communist Party in Gujarat and other forces.[50]
The countrywideGoaSatyagraha movement of 1955–1956 is a significant event in the history of the Indian freedom struggle, in which the communists played a major role. The CPI sent groups ofsatyahrahis from mid-1955 onward to the borders of and intoGoa. Many were killed, and many more were arrested and sent to jails inside Goa and inhumanely treated. Many others were even sent to jails in Portugal and brutally tortured. Thesatyagraha movement was led and conducted by a joint committee known as Goa Vimochan Sahayak Samiti. Dange,Senapati Bapat,S. G. Sardesai,Nana Patil and several others were among the leaders of the committee. Satyagraha began on 10 May 1955, and soon became a countrywide movement.[51]
Ideological differences led to thesplit in the party in 1964 when two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of theCommunist Party of India (Marxist).[52] The impacts of theSino-Soviet split contributed to this party split.[53]: 121
During the period between 1970 and 1977, the CPI was allied with the Congress party. In Kerala, they formed a government together with Congress as part of a coalition known as theUnited Front, with the CPI-leaderC. Achutha Menon as Chief Minister. This government continued governing throughout the emergency period and was responsible for the many acts of repression throughout the period carried out against political opponents in the guise of fighting naxals, manifesting most infamously in theRajan case. The United Front government also used this opportunity to pursue class struggle by punishing those from the managerial classes, money lenders, bosses with anti-labour stances, ration shopkeepers and truckers engaged in black marketing, under stringent provisions ofMISA andDIR.[54]
In the 1980s, the CPI opposed theKhalistan movement at Punjab.[55][56][57][58]
In 1986, the CPI's leader in Punjab and MLA in the Punjabi legislatureDarshan Singh Canadian was assassinated by Sikh extremists. Altogether about 200 communist leaders out of which most were Sikhs were killed by Sikh extremists in Punjab.[59][60]
.JPG)
The CPI was recognised by theElection Commission of India as a national party. Until 2022, CPI happened to be the only national political party from India to have contested all the general elections using the sameelectoral symbol. Owing to a massive defeat in2019 Indian general election where the party saw its tally reduced to two MPs, the Election Commission of India sent a letter to CPI asking for reasons why its national party status should not be revoked.[61][62][63][64][65] Due to repeated poor performances in elections, the Election Commission of India withdrew its national party status on 10 April 2023.[11]
On the national level, they supported the Indian National Congress-ledUnited Progressive Alliance government along with other parliamentary Left parties, but without taking part in it. Upon attaining power in May 2004, the United Progressive Alliance formulated a programme of action known as theCommon Minimum Programme.[66][67] The Left bases its support to the UPA on strict adherence to it. Provisions of the CMP mentioned to discontinuedisinvestment, massive social sector outlays and an independent foreign policy.
On 8 July 2008, the General Secretary of the CPI(M),Prakash Karat, announced that the Left was withdrawing its support over the decision by the government to go ahead with theUnited States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. The Left parties combination had been a staunch advocate of not proceeding with this deal citing national interests.[68]
InWest Bengal, the CPI participates in theLeft Front. It also participated in the state government in Manipur. In Kerala, the party is part ofLeft Democratic Front. InTripura the party is a partner of theLeft Front, which governed the state until 2018. InTamil Nadu it is part of theSecular Progressive Alliance and in Bihar it is the part ofMahagathbandhan. It is involved in theLeft Democratic Front in Maharashtra. In February 2022, CPI and Congress formed an alliance in Manipur namedManipur Progressive Secular Alliance.[69][70] The current general secretary of CPI isD. Raja.
As of 2020, the CPI is a part of the state government inKerala.Pinarayi Vijayan is Chief Minister of Kerala.[71] CPI have four Cabinet Ministers in Kerala. InTamil Nadu, it is part of theSecular Progressive Alliance coalition led byM. K. Stalin. TheLeft Front governedWest Bengal for 34 years (1977–2011) andTripura for 25 years (1993–2018)
| S.No | State/ | Govt Since | Chief Minister | Alliance | Coalition Seats in Assembly | Last election | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait | Name | Party | Seats | Since | |||||||
| 1 | Kerala | 26 May 2016 |  | Pinarayi Vijayan | CPI(M) | 62 | 26 May 2016 | Left Democratic Front | 97 / 140 | 6 April 2021 | |
| State legislative assembly | Last election | Contested seats | Seats won | Alliance | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bihar Legislative Council | 2020 | 1 | 1 / 75 | Mahagathbandhan | Opposition | [72] | |
| State legislative assembly | Last election | Contested seats | Seats won | Alliance | Result | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kerala Legislative Assembly | 2021 | 23 | 17 / 140 | Left Democratic Front | in government | [73] | |
| Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly | 2021 | 6 | 2 / 234 | Secular Progressive Alliance | in Government | [74] | |
| Telangana Legislative Assembly | 2023 | 1 | 1 / 119 | INC+ | in Government | [75] | |
| No. | Name | State | Date of appointment | Date of retirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P. P. Suneer | Kerala | 2 July 2024 | 1 July 2030 |
| 2 | P. Sandosh Kumar | Kerala | 4 April 2022 | 3 April 2028 |
| No. | Name | Constituency | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | K. Subbarayan | Tiruppur | Tamil Nadu |
| 2 | Selvaraj V | Nagapattinam | Tamil Nadu |
The 24th Party Congress of the Communist Party of India was held from2025 September 21 to 25inChandigarh
| Name | Photo |
|---|---|
| D. Raja |  |
| Amarjeet Kaur |  |
| Bhalchandra Kango | |
| Rama Krushna Panda | |
| Annie Raja |  |
| Girish Chandra Sharma | |
| K. Prakash Babu | |
| P. Santhosh Kumar |  |
| Palla Venkata Reddy |  |
| Sanjay Kumar |
K. Ramakrishna will be an invitee to the national secretariat. Pallab Sengupta, President of theWorld Peace Council and in charge of the CPI International Department for several years, will be a permanent invitee to all higher bodies of the party.
| State | State Secretary |
|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | TBD |
| Andhra Pradesh | Gujjula Eshwarayya |
| Assam | Kanak Gogoi |
| Bihar | Ram Naresh Pandey |
| Delhi | Dinesh Varshney |
| Chhattisgarh | K. Saji |
| Goa | Christopher Fonseca |
| Gujarat | Ramsagar Singh Parihar |
| Haryana | Dariyav Singh Kashyap |
| Himachal Pradesh | Bhag Singh Chaudhary |
| Jammu and Kashmir | G. M. Mizrab |
| Jharkhand | Mahendra Pathak |
| Karnataka | Saathi Sundaresh |
| Kerala | Binoy Viswam |
| Madhya Pradesh | Shailendra Shaili |
| Maharashtra | Subhash Lande |
| Manipur | Naba Chandra |
| Meghalaya | Samudra Gupta[76] |
| Nagaland | M. M. Thromwa Konyak[77] |
| Odisha | Prasanta Mishra |
| Punjab | Bant Singh Brar |
| Puducherry | A. M. Saleem |
| Rajasthan | Narendra Acharya |
| Tamil Nadu | M. Veerapandian[78] |
| Telangana | Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao |
| Tripura | Milan Baidya |
| Uttarakhand | Jagdish Kuliyal |
| Uttar Pradesh | Arvind Raj Swarup |
| West Bengal | Swapan Banerjee |
Article XXXII of the party constitution says:
"The tenure of the General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary, if any, and State Secretaries is limited to two consecutive terms—a term being of not less than two years. In exceptional cases, the unit concerned may decide by three-fourth majority through secret ballot to allow two more terms. In case such a motion is adopted that comrade also can contest in the election along with other candidates. As regards the tenure of the office-bearers at district and lower levels, the state councils will frame rules where necessary."[79]
| Number | Photo | Name | Tenure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sachchidanand Vishnu Ghate | 1925–1933 | |
| 2nd |  | Gangadhar Adhikari | 1933–1935 |
| 3rd |  | Puran Chand Joshi | 1936–1948 |
| 4th |  | B. T. Ranadive | 1948–1950 |
| 5th | Chandra Rajeswara Rao | 1950–1951 | |
| 6th | Ajoy Ghosh | 1951–1962 | |
| Chairman |  | Shripad Amrit Dange | 1962–1981 |
| 7th |  | E. M. S. Namboodiripad | 1962–1964 |
| (-) | Chandra Rajeswara Rao | 1964–1990 | |
| 8th | Indrajit Gupta | 1990–1996 | |
| 9th |  | Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan | 1996–2012 |
| 10th |  | Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy | 2012–2019 |
| 11th |  | D. Raja | Since 2019 (incumbent) |
| Party congress | Year | Place |
|---|---|---|
| Founding conference | 1925 December 25–28 | Cawnpore (Kanpur) |
| 1st | 1943 May 23 – June 1 | Bombay |
| 2nd | 1948 February 28 – March 6 | Calcutta (Kolkata) |
| 3rd | 1953 December 27 – 1954 January 4 | Madurai |
| 4th | 1956 April 19–29 | Palghat |
| 5th | 1958 April 6–13 | Amritsar |
| 6th | 1961 April 7–16 | Vijayawada |
| 7th | 1964 December 13–23 | Bombay |
| 8th | 1968 February 7–15 | Patna |
| 9th | 1971 October 3–10 | Cochin (Kochi) |
| 10th | 1975 January 27 – February 2 | Vijayawada |
| 11th | 1978 March 31 – April 7 | Bathinda |
| 12th | 1982 March 22–28 | Varanasi |
| 13th | 1986 March 2–17 | Patna |
| 14th | 1989 March 6–12 | Calcutta |
| 15th | 1992 April 10–16 | Hyderabad |
| 16th | 1995 October 7–11 | Delhi |
| 17th | 1998 September 14–19 | Chennai |
| 18th | 2002 March 26–31 | Thiruvananthapuram |
| 19th | 2005 March 29 – April 3 | Chandigarh |
| 20th | 2008 March 23–27 | Hyderabad |
| 21st | 2012 March 27–31 | Patna |
| 22nd | 2015 March 25–29 | Puducherry |
| 23rd | 2018 April 25–29 | Kollam |
| 24th | 2022 October 14–18 | Vijayawada |
| 25th | 2025 September 21–25 | Chandigarh |
InTripura, the Ganamukti Parishad is a mass organisation amongst the state'sTripuri people.
| Photo | Name | Tenure | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| E. M. S. Namboodiripad | 1957–1959 | Kerala |
 | C. Achutha Menon | 1969–1970; 1970–1977 | |
 | P. K. Vasudevan Nair | 1978–1979 |
| Year | Legislature | Total Lok Sabha constituencies | Seats won / Seats Contested | Change in seats | Total Votes | Percentage of votes | Change in vote % | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951–52 | 1st Lok Sabha | 489 | 16 / 49 | New | 3,487,401 | 3.29% | New | [103] |
| 1957 | 2nd Lok Sabha | 494 | 27 / 110 |  11 | 10,754,075 | 8.92% | 5.63% | [104] |
| 1962 | 3rd Lok Sabha | 494 | 29 / 137 | 2 | 11,450,037 | 9.94% | 1.02% | [105] |
| 1967 | 4th Lok Sabha | 520 | 23 / 109 |  6 | 7,458,396 | 5.11% | 4.83% | [106] |
| 1971 | 5th Lok Sabha | 518 | 23 / 87 |  | 6,933,627 | 4.73% | 0.38% | [107] |
| 1977 | 6th Lok Sabha | 542 | 7 / 91 | 16 | 5,322,088 | 2.82% | 1.91% | [108] |
| 1980 | 7th Lok Sabha | 529(542*) | 10 / 47 | 3 | 4,927,342 | 2.49% | 0.33% | [109] |
| 1984 | 8th Lok Sabha | 541 | 6 / 61 | 4 | 6,363,430 | 2.71% | 0.22% | [110][111] |
| 1989 | 9th Lok Sabha | 529 | 12 / 50 | 6 | 7,734,697 | 2.57% | 0.14% | [112] |
| 1991 | 10th Lok Sabha | 534 | 14 / 42 | 2 | 6,851,114 | 2.49% | 0.08% | [113][114] |
| 1996 | 11th Lok Sabha | 543 | 12 / 43 | 2 | 6,582,263 | 1.97% | 0.52% | [115] |
| 1998 | 12th Lok Sabha | 543 | 9 / 58 | 3 | 6,429,569 | 1.75% | 0.22% | [116] |
| 1999 | 13th Lok Sabha | 543 | 4 / 54 | 5 | 5,395,119 | 1.48% | 0.27% | [117] |
| 2004 | 14th Lok Sabha | 543 | 10 / 34 | 6 | 5,484,111 | 1.41% | 0.07% | [118] |
| 2009 | 15th Lok Sabha | 543 | 4 / 56 | 6 | 5,951,888 | 1.43% | 0.02% | [119] |
| 2014 | 16th Lok Sabha | 543 | 1 / 67 | 3 | 4,327,460 | 0.79% | 0.64% | [120] |
| 2019 | 17th Lok Sabha | 543 | 2 / 49 | 1 | 3,576,184 | 0.59% | 0.20% | [121] |
| 2024 | 18th Lok Sabha | 543 | 2 / 30 | | 3,132,683 | 0.49% | 0.10% | [122] |
| All time-CPI Lok Sabha seat count |
 |
| Year | State | Total assembly seats | Seats won / Seats contested | Change in seats | Votes | Vote % | Change in vote % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Bihar | 243 | 0 / 9 | 2 | 372,458 | 0.74% | 0.09% |
| 2024 | Andhra Pradesh | 175 | 0 / 8 | | 12,832 | 0.04% | 0.07% |
| Jharkhand | 81 | 0 / 11 | | 36,057 | 0.20% | 0.26% | |
| Haryana | 90 | 0 / 11 | | 1,342 | 0.02% | ||
| Maharashtra | 288 | 0 / 2 | | 12,911 | 0.02% | 0.04% | |
| Odisha | 147 | 0 / 4 | | 19,935 | 0.08% | 0.04% | |
| 2023 | Telangana | 119 | 1 / 1 | 1 | 80,336 | 0.34 | 0.07 |
| Chhattisgarh | 90 | 0 / 3 | | 6,594 | 0.39 | 0.5% | |
| 2022 | Uttar Pradesh | 403 | 0 / 35 | | 64,011 | 0.07% | 0.09% |
| Uttarakhand | 70 | 0 / 4 | | 2,325 | 0.04% | ||
| Manipur | 60 | 0 / 2 | | 1,032 | 0.06% | 0.68% | |
| Himachal Pradesh | 68 | 0 / 1 | | 627 | 0.01% | 0.03% | |
| Punjab | 117 | 0 / 7 | | 7,440 | 0.05% | ||
| Gujarat | 182 | 0 / 3 | | 2,688 | 0.01% | 0.01% | |
| 2021 | Assam | 126 | 0 / 1 | | 27,290 | 0.84% | 0.14% |
| Kerala | 140 | 17 / 23 | 2 | 1,579,235 | 7.58% | 0.54% | |
| Puducherry | 30 | 0 / 1 | | 7,522 | 0.90% | 0.2% | |
| Tamil Nadu | 234 | 2 / 6 | 2 | 504,537 | 1.09% | 0.3% | |
| West Bengal | 294 | 0 / 10 | 1 | 118,655 | 0.20% | 1.25% | |
| 2020 | Bihar | 243 | 2 / 6 | 2 | 349,489 | 0.83% | 0.57% |
| 2019 | Andhra Pradesh | 175 | 0 / 7 | | 34,746 | 0.11% | — |
| Jharkhand | 81 | 0 / 18 | | 68,589 | 0.46% | 0.43% | |
| Maharashtra | 288 | 0 / 16 | | 35,188 | 0.06% | 0.07% | |
| Odisha | 147 | 0 / 3 | | 29,235 | 0.12% | 0.39% | |
| 2018 | Chhattisgarh | 90 | 0 / 7 | | 48,255 | 0.34% | 0.32% |
| Rajasthan | 200 | 0 / 16 | | 42,820 | 0.12% | 0.06% | |
| Tripura | 60 | 0 / 1 | 1 | 19,352 | 0.82% | 0.85% |
Results from the Election Commission of India website. Results do not deal with partitions of states, defections and by-elections during the mandate period.
* : 12 seats in Assam and 1 in Meghalaya did not vote.
| State | Candidates 2019 | Elected 2019 | Candidates 2014 | Elected 2014 | Candidates 2009 | Elected 2009 | Total seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 25 (2014) / 42 (2009) |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Assam | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| Bihar | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 40 |
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| Goa | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Gujarat | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 26 |
| Haryana | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Jammu and Kashmir | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Jharkhand | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| Karnataka | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 28 |
| Kerala | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 20 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 4 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 29 |
| Maharashtra | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 48 |
| Manipur | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Meghalaya | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Mizoram | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Nagaland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Odisha | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 21 |
| Punjab | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13 |
| Rajasthan | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 25 |
| Sikkim | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tamil Nadu | 2 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 39 |
| Tripura | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Telangana | 2 | 0 | 17 | ||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 12 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 80 |
| Uttarakhand | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| West Bengal | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 42 |
| Union Territories: | |||||||
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Chandigarh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Daman and Diu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Delhi | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Lakshadweep | 1[123] | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Puducherry | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 50 | 2 | 67 | 1 | 56 | 4 | 543 |
As a protest against Partition, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Communist Party of India (CPI) did not participate in the celebrations of 15 August.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
_Logo.svg){kind=logo}
