Elections in India

← 1977 1978 1979 →

Elections in the Republic of India in1978 included elections to seven state legislative assemblies.

Date(s)	State	Government before		Chief Minister before	Government after		Elected Chief Minister	Maps
25 February 1978	Andhra Pradesh		Indian National Congress (R)	Jalagam Vengala Rao		Indian National Congress (I)	Marri Channa Reddy
	Arunachal Pradesh	New State was created				Janata Party	Prem Khandu Thungan
	Assam		Indian National Congress	Sarat Chandra Sinha		Janata Party	Golap Borbora
	Karnataka		President's Rule			Indian National Congress (I)	D. Devaraj Urs
	Meghalaya		All Party Hill Leaders Conference	Williamson A. Sangma		All Party Hill Leaders Conference	Darwin Diengdoh Pugh
25 February 1978	Maharashtra		Indian National Congress	Vasantdada Patil		Indian National Congress (I)	Vasantdada Patil
						Indian National Congress (U)
17 and 20 May 1978	Mizoram		Mizo Union (contested as Independent)	C. Chhunga		Mizoram People's Conference	T. Sailo

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Janata Party	66,906	42.08	17	New
	People's Party of Arunachal	48,075	30.24	8	New
	Indian National Congress	720	0.45	0	New
	Independents	43,287	27.23	5	New
Total		158,988	100.00	30	New
Valid votes		158,988	96.60
Invalid/blank votes		5,599	3.40
Total votes		164,587	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		224,839	73.20
Source: ECI[2]

Summary of results of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, 1978^[3]

	Political Party	Contestants	Seats won	Seat change	Number of votes	Vote share	Net change
	Indian National Congress (Indira)	214	149		5,543,756	44.25%
	Janata Party	222	59		4,754,114	37.95%
	Communist Party of India	6	3		148,567	1.19%
	Indian National Congress	212	2		1,001,553	7.99%
	Republican Party of India	3	1		22,443	0.18%
	Independents		10	10	940,677	7.51%	N/A
	Total		224

Summary of results of the Maharashtra State Assembly election, 1978^[4]

	Political Party	No. of candidates	No. of elected	Number of Votes	% of Votes	Seat change
	Janata Party	215	99	5,701,399	27.99%	99
	Indian National Congress	259	69	5,159,828	25.33%	159
	Indian National Congress (Indira)	203	62	3,735,308	18.34%	62
	Peasants and Workers Party of India	88	13	1,129,172	5.54%	6
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	12	9	345,008	1.69%	8
	All India Forward Bloc	6	3	166,497	0.82%	1
	Republican Party of India	25	2	215,487	1.06%
	Republican Party of India (Khobragade)	23	2	287,533	1.41%	2
	Communist Party of India	48	1	301,056	1.48%	1
	Independents	894	28	2,864,023	14.06%	5
	Total	1819	288	20,367,221	100%

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Indian National Congress (INC)	109,654	28.96	19.07	20	11
	All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC)	94,362	24.92	10.75	16	16
	Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP)	72,852	19.24		14[a]
	Indian National Congress (I)	5,447	1.44		0
	Communist Party of India	2,361	0.62	0.05	0
	Independents (IND)	93,970	24.82	29.04	10[b]	9
Total		378,646	100.00		60	±0
Source:Election Commission of India[5]

^a The HSPDP won 8 seats in the 1972 election, but the party's representatives were recorded as independents at the time of that election.^[6]

^bTwo candidates from the PDIC were elected, but the party had not obtained registration in time for the election; the party's representatives were recorded as independents in the official results.^[7]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Mizoram People's Conference	52,640	37.47	22	22
	Independents	87,830	62.53	8	16
Total		140,470	100.00	30	0
Valid votes		140,470	98.71
Invalid/blank votes		1,838	1.29
Total votes		142,308	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		224,936	63.27
Source: ECI[8]

• "Election Results - Full Statistical Reports".Election Commission of India.

• 1978 elections in India
• 1978 elections in Asia
• 1978 in India
• Elections in India by year

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from May 2025