1991 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election

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All 294 seats in theWest Bengal Legislative Assembly 148 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	76.8%
First party Second party   Leader Jyoti Basu Siddhartha Shankar Ray Party CPI(M) INC Alliance LF INC+ Leader since 1964 1991 Leader's seat Satgachhia Chowrangee Last election 39.30%, 187 seats 41.81%, 40 seats Seats won 182 43 Seat change 5 3 Coalition vote 10,954,379 10,875,834 Percentage 35.37% 35.12% Swing 3.93pp 6.71pp Alliance seats 245 47 Seat change 6 7
Alliance wise Result
Chief Minister before election Jyoti Basu CPI(M) Chief Minister after election Jyoti Basu CPI(M)

Legislative Assembly elections were held in theIndian state ofWest Bengal in 1991. The election took place simultaneously with the1991 Indian general election.^[1][2] The term of the assembly elected in 1987 lasted until February 1992, but theWest Bengal Government asked theElection Commission of India to arrange the election at an earlier date.^[3]

The campaign of theLeft Front focused on issues relating to secularism, communal harmony and theMandal Commission.^[4][5]

TheCommunist Party of India (Marxist), the dominant partner in the Left Front, opted to deny reelection to 23 incumbent legislators, including one minister (Abdul Bari).^[5] In total CPI(M) fielded 204 candidates,AIFB 34,RSP 23,CPI 12,WBSP 4,MFB 2,DSP 2,RCPI 2,CRLI 1,Janata Dal 8 and theAkhil Bharatiya Gorkha League 1.^[6][7]

TheIndian National Congress (Indira) had seat-sharing arrangement, whereby INC(I) contested 285 seats, theJharkhand Party 4, theGNLF 3, UCPI 1 and 1 independent.^[7]

Jubilant over theCPI(M)-led alliance of Communist parties losing power in1988 in Tripura, another Indian state with aBengali majority under Communist rule since 1977, the Indian National Congress (I) brought back former Chief MinisterSiddhartha Shankar Ray into the party ahead of the 1991 elections, and appointed him head of the West Bengal party unit.^[5] Whilst the Congress was keen to exploit Ray's popularity, who campaigned on the issues of corruption like the 'Bengal Lamp scam' raised by the former PWD minister of the Left FrontJatin Chakraborty, the1990 Bantala rape case and alleged that the deindustrialisation of the state had been caused due to Jyoti Basu's support to Communist labour unions, the CPI(M) organGanashakti published articles on a daily basis reminding voters of Ray's role in perpetrating state-sponsored anti-Communist violence during theEmergency era.^[5]

The INC(I) was suffering from internal divisions in West Bengal at the time of the election.^[4] The West Bengal state party HQ was attacked by disgruntled Congressmen.^[4] In the midst of a rally inDiamond Harbour, with ex Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi as speaker, rival Congress factions clashed.^[4]

At the time, theUnited Communist Party of India was a Congress ally.^[3] UCPI fielded a single candidate inChandrakona constituency, who finished in second place.^[6]

TheBharatiya Janata Party fielded 291 candidates across the state.^[6][8] This was the first time BJP fielded such a large number of candidates in West Bengal assembly elections.^[8] Rather than focusing primarily on theRam-mandir issue, which was highlighted in the BJP campaigns across the country, the West Bengal BJP campaign concentrated on agitations against illegal infiltration ofBengali Muslims fromBangladesh.^[9] The campaign sought to invoke memories ofPartition among theBengali Hindus, especially among theBangal community.^[9] Whilst support for BJP increased amongst Bengali Hindu society, its main stronghold in the state remained non-Bengali Hindu populations inCalcutta (especially amongMarwaris andGujaratis).^[9]

TheSocialist Unity Centre of India fielded 59 candidates, contesting as independents.^[7] It had launched an electoral front ahead of the polls, along with someNaxalite factions, theWorkers Party of India, a RCPI faction and theBolshevik Party of India.^[10] SUCI won two seats.^[7]

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)			Jyoti Basu	204
	All India Forward Bloc			Chitta Basu	34
	Revolutionary Socialist Party			Kshiti Goswami	23
	Communist Party of India			Indrajit Gupta	12
	Janata Dal			Vishwanath Pratap Singh	8
	Revolutionary Communist Party of India			Baneswar Saikia[11]	2
	Marxist Forward Bloc			Pratim Chatterjee	1[a]
	Communist Revolutionary League of India				1
	Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League				1
The parties which were contested underCPI(M) Ticket
	West Bengal Socialist Party			Kiranmoy Nanda	4
	Biplobi Bangla Congress				2
	Democratic Socialist Party			Prabodh Chandra Sinha	1
	Marxist Forward Bloc			Pratim Chatterjee	1[b]
Total					294

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Indian National Congress			Siddhartha Shankar Ray	285
	Jharkhand Party			N. E. Horo	4
	Gorkha National Liberation Front				3
	United Communist Party of India			Mohit Sen	1
	Independent				1
Total					294

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Contesting Seats
	Bharatiya Janata Party			Tapan Sikdar	291
Total					291

The election was won by the Left Front, marking its fourth consecutive assembly election victory.^[12] The Left Front and allies won 245 out of the 294 seats.^[6][12] BJP managed to increase its share of votes from 0.51% in 1987 to 11.34%. It was the best ever performance of BJP in the state until2014 general elections.

Since aCPI(M)-led alliance of Communist parties in Kerala had lost theelections in Kerala held simultaneously that year to aCongress-led alliance, West Bengal was the lone Indian state to be under Communist rule until 1993 when the Communists were re-elected back to power in Tripura.

• 1991 Kandua hand-chopping

• West Bangal General Legislative Election Results at theElection Commission of India

• State Assembly elections in West Bengal
• 1990s in West Bengal
• 1991 State Assembly elections in India

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• Use dmy dates from May 2020