Election Commission05-May, 2009 18:38 IST
General Elections 2004-overview of West Bengal: General Elections-2009: Backgrounder

General Elections - 09

Backgrounder - 46           

Repeating its earlier performance, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-CPM emerged as the largest party in the State of West Bengal during last General Elections of 2004 returning as many as 26 Members of Parliament to the Lok Sabha.  The Party won 61.90% of total 42 seats   from the State.  In terms of the votes polled, CPI(M) polled 38.57% of the total votes polled in the State.  Both in terms of number of seats and in terms votes polled, CPI(M) improved upon its performance in the previous elections (General Elections’1999), when the Party won 21 out of 42 seats and secured 35.57% of the votes polled.

            Indian National Congress (INC) came in second by winning 6 seats with a voting per centage of 14.56 in 2004 General Elections.  This was followed by Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) with three seats (4.48% votes polled), Communist Party of India (CPI) 3 seats (4.01% of votes polled  and All India Forward Block also winning three seats(3.66% of votes polled).  All India Trinamool Congress could only win one seat in the General Elections of 2004 as against eight seats in the General Elections of 1999.  The Party however, was second in terms of the votes polled securing 21.04% .

Party-wise percentage of votes, number of contestants and seats won in West Bengal during 2004 General Elections are as follows:

Party

Number of Contestants

Seats Won

% of seat Won

Votes polled

%age of votes polled

National Parties

 

 

 

 

 

Bharatiya Janata Party

13

0

0

2983950

8.06

Bahujan Samaj Party

36

0

0

331319

0.9

Communist Party of India

3

3

100

1484152

4.01

Communist Party of India(Marxist)

32

26

81.25

14271042

38.57

Indian National Congress

37

6

16.22

5385754

14.56

Nationalist Congress Party

1

0

0

9901

0.03

National Parties Total

122

35

28.69

24466118

66.12

 

State Parties

 

 

 

 

 

All India Forward Bloc

3

3

100

1352423

3.66

All India Trinamool Congress

29

1

3.45

7786178

21.04

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)(Liberation)

5

0

0

36726

0.1

Janata Dal (Secular)

3

0

0

15248

0.04

Janata Dal (United)

1

0

0

3111

0.01

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha

2

0

0

56429

0.15

Revolutionary Socialist Party

4

3

75

1658787

4.48

Shivsena

2

0

0

9462

0.03

Samajwadi Party

15

0

0

108514

0.29

State Parties Total

64

7

10.94

11026878

29.8

REGISTERED (Unrecognised) PARTIES

23

0

0

301267

0.81

INDEPENDENTS

146

0

0

1205970

3.26

Grand Total

355

42

11.83

37000233

 

BSC/RCJ/G5


(Release ID :48622)