1972 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "1972 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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   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 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]

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]

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%

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