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518 of the 521 seats in theLok Sabha 260 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 274,189,132 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 55.27% ( 5.77pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by constituency | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in India between 1 and 10 March 1971 to elect members of thefifthLok Sabha. They were the fifth general elections since independence in 1947. The 27 Indian states and union territories were represented by 518 constituencies, each with a single seat.[2] Under the leadership ofIndira Gandhi, theIndian National Congress (R) led a campaign which focused onreducing poverty and won a landslide victory, overcoming a split in the party and regaining many of the seats lost in the previous election.[3]
During Indira Gandhi's previous term, there had been internal divisions in the Indian National Congress caused by various initiatives of her administration likenationalisation ofbanks,coal and steel, abolition of theprivy purse and increasingcloseness with the Soviet Union, steps that were considered to be tooleft-wing by the Congress high command consisting ofcentre-right leaders likeMorarji Desai,K. Kamaraj,Atulya Ghosh,Neelam Sanjiva Reddy,S. K. Patil and others. In 1969 she was expelled from the party by party presidentS. Nijalingappa, causing a split. Most of the Congress MPs and grassroots support joined Gandhi'sIndian National Congress (Requisitionists) faction, which was recognised by theElection Commission as being the successor to the previous party. 31 MPs who opposed Gandhi formedIndian National Congress (Organisation) party.
The Second Indira Gandhi government, formed in November 1969 and dissolved in March 1971, was the first minority government in independent India. After the split, the INC(R) held 221 seats in the 523-seat parliament, 41 seats short of a majority. However, Gandhi and her cabinet remained in power by relying on support from left-wing parties like theDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (26 seats), theCommunist Party of India and its recently formed breakaway faction, theCPI(Marxist) (who together had 42 seats), giving the government a total of 289 seats, a comfortable majority and far more than the minimum of 262 seats required for a majority. Knowing that her minority government would eventually fall, on 27 December 1970, President V.V. Giri dissolved the Lok Sabha on the recommendation of Gandhi.
INC(O) formed a pre-poll alliance withSamyukta Socialist Party (SSP),Praja Socialist Party (PSP), theSwatantra Party andBharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and several other regional parties opposed to the INC(R). They agreed to field a single joint candidate against the INC(R) candidate in every constituency in order to defeat Gandhi's party.
Despite the split, the ruling faction gained votes and seats to win a strong majority, while the Grand Alliance was badly trounced and lost more than half of their seats.
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Indian National Congress (R) | 64,033,274 | 43.68 | 352 | +69 | |
| Indian National Congress (Organisation) | 15,285,851 | 10.43 | 16 | New | |
| Bharatiya Jana Sangh | 10,777,119 | 7.35 | 22 | –13 | |
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 7,510,089 | 5.12 | 25 | +6 | |
| Communist Party of India | 6,933,627 | 4.73 | 23 | 0 | |
| Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 5,622,758 | 3.84 | 23 | –2 | |
| Swatantra Party | 4,497,988 | 3.07 | 8 | –36 | |
| Samyukta Socialist Party | 3,555,639 | 2.43 | 3 | –20 | |
| Bharatiya Kranti Dal | 3,189,821 | 2.18 | 1 | New | |
| Telangana Praja Samithi | 1,873,589 | 1.28 | 10 | New | |
| Praja Socialist Party | 1,526,076 | 1.04 | 2 | –11 | |
| Shiromani Akali Dal | 1,279,873 | 0.87 | 1 | New | |
| Utkal Congress | 1,053,176 | 0.72 | 1 | New | |
| All India Forward Bloc | 962,971 | 0.66 | 2 | 0 | |
| Peasants and Workers Party of India | 741,535 | 0.51 | 0 | –2 | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party | 724,001 | 0.49 | 3 | New | |
| Republican Party of India (Khobragade) | 542,662 | 0.37 | 0 | New | |
| Kerala Congress | 542,431 | 0.37 | 3 | +3 | |
| Bangla Congress | 518,781 | 0.35 | 1 | –4 | |
| Indian Union Muslim League | 416,545 | 0.28 | 2 | 0 | |
| Vishal Haryana Party | 352,514 | 0.24 | 1 | New | |
| All India Jharkhand Party | 272,563 | 0.19 | 1 | New | |
| Shiv Sena | 227,468 | 0.16 | 0 | New | |
| Shoshit Dal Bihar | 193,389 | 0.13 | 0 | New | |
| Socialist Unity Centre of India | 157,703 | 0.11 | 0 | New | |
| Republican Party of India | 153,794 | 0.10 | 1 | 0 | |
| Janta Party | 139,091 | 0.09 | 0 | New | |
| All Party Hill Leaders Conference | 90,772 | 0.06 | 1 | 0 | |
| United Front of Nagaland | 89,514 | 0.06 | 1 | New | |
| Hindu Mahasabha | 73,191 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
| Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | 72,131 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
| Bihar Prant Hul Jharkhand | 66,669 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
| Hindustani Shoshit Dal | 65,925 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Revolutionary Communist Party of India | 65,622 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Lok Sewak Sangh | 62,527 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Jana Congress | 60,103 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nagaland Nationalist Organisation | 58,511 | 0.04 | 0 | –1 | |
| United Goans – Seqveria Group | 58,401 | 0.04 | 1 | 0 | |
| Socialist Party | 55,064 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party | 54,597 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Proutist Bloc of India | 43,849 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Telangana Congress | 43,548 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Minorities Labour Party | 41,198 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Indian Socialist Party | 38,713 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Muslim Majlis Uttar Pradesh | 36,526 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
| Lok Raj Party Himachal Pradesh | 34,070 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
| Uttar Pradesh Kisan Mazdoor Party | 31,729 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
| Manipur Peoples Party | 31,029 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
| Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad | 24,093 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
| Republican Party of India (Ambedkarite) | 22,428 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
| Backward Classes Mahasabha | 6,929 | 0.00 | 0 | New | |
| Revolutionary Socialist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) | 6,198 | 0.00 | 0 | New | |
| Chota Nagpur Bhumi Rakshak Party | 4,982 | 0.00 | 0 | New | |
| Independents | 12,279,629 | 8.38 | 14 | –21 | |
| Appointed members[a] | 3 | 0 | |||
| Total | 146,602,276 | 100.00 | 521 | –2 | |
| Valid votes | 146,602,276 | 96.74 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 4,934,526 | 3.26 | |||
| Total votes | 151,536,802 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 274,189,132 | 55.27 | |||
| Source:ECI | |||||
| State | Total seats | Seats won | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INC (R) | CPM | CPI | DMK | BJS | INC (O) | TPS | SWA | SSP | PSP | BKD | Others | Ind. | App. | ||
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 41 | 28 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | |||||||||
| Assam | 14 | 13 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Bihar | 53 | 39 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Chandigarh | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | 7 | 7 | |||||||||||||
| Goa, Daman and Diu | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Gujarat | 24 | 11 | 11 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Haryana | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | 4 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Kerala | 19 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 1 | |||||||||
| Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 37 | 21 | 11 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 45 | 42 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Manipur | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Mysore | 27 | 27 | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| North-East Frontier Agency | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Orissa | 20 | 15 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Punjab | 13 | 10 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Pondicherry | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | 23 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 39 | 9 | 4 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Tripura | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 85 | 73 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| West Bengal | 40 | 13 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||
| Anglo-Indians | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Total | 521 | 352 | 25 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 14 | 3 |
| Source:ECI | |||||||||||||||
On 12 June 1975 the Allahabad High Court invalidated the result in Gandhi's constituency on the grounds of electoral malpractices. Instead of resigning, Indira Gandhi calleda state of emergency, suspending democracy and outlawed political opposition. After democracy was restored in 1977, the opposition Congress faction formed a coalition of parties called theJanata Party, which inflicted the Congress's first electoral defeat.
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