1967 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

Elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly were held in February 1967, to elect members of the 318 constituencies in Bihar, India. The Indian National Congress won the most seats as well as the popular vote, but Mahamaya Prasad Sinha of the Jana Kranti Dal was appointed as the Chief Minister of Bihar. No single party had won a majority of seats,

Government formation

1st Government

Parties like Samyukt Socialist Party, Jan Sangh, CPI, Jan Kranti Dal and Praja Socialist together formed the government. Although the second largest party after Congress was the Samyukt Socialist Party and its leader Karpoori Thakur had a stake in the post of Chief Minister, but other parties were not ready.In such a situation, all the parties agreed on the name of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha of Jan Kranti Dal, who became the Chief Minister of Bihar in March 1967, while Karpoori Thakur became the Deputy Chief Minister. However, the government couldn't last even for a year.

2nd Government

Opposition to the caste composition of the minsitry led to some members of the samyukt socialist party, provoked by Health minister BP Mandal(who was forced to resign by karpoori thakur), join hands with the congress to form new government headed by first backward chief minister BP Mandal, which lasted just 50 days.

3rd Government

However, there was a tussle going on within the Congress on the issue of supporting the Mandal government. Angered by this decision of the party, 17 MLAs rebelled under the leadership of former Chief Minister Binodanand Jha, leader of the anti-KB Sahay group. Formed a separate faction in the name of Loktrantik Congress and withdrew support from the Mandal government. Only one month old BP Mandal government had to resign and in the new manipulation, MLA of this Loktrantik Congress camp, Bhola Paswan Shastri became first Dalit chief minister with the help of opposition MLAs.Even his minsitry lasted for just 4 months

The weakening of previously dominant congress party, rising aspirations of backward classes(forward-backward tussle) and individual greed of leaders was the main reasons for these short lived govertments.

Result

Elected members

See also

• List of constituencies of the Bihar Legislative Assembly
• 1967 elections in India

References