Kerala Legislative Assembly election, 1960

← 1957

February 1960

1965 →

All 126 seats in the Kerala Legislative Assembly
64 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

85.72%

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader		E. M. S. Namboodiripad	Pattom A. Thanu Pillai
Party	INC	CPI	Praja Socialist Party
Alliance	With PSP & IUML		With Congress & IUML
Leader's seat		Pattambi	Thiruvananthapuram-II
Last election	43	60	9
Seats won	63	29	20
Seat change	20	31	11
Popular vote	2,789,556	3,171,732	1,146,028
Percentage	34.42%	39.14%	14.14%
Swing	3.43%	3.86%	3.38%

Chief Minister before election

Vacant
President's rule

Chief Minister

Pattom A. Thanu Pillai
Praja Socialist Party

Vacant
President's rule

Pattom A. Thanu Pillai
Praja Socialist Party

The Kerala Legislative Assembly election of 1960 was the second assembly election in the Indian state of Kerala. The elections were held on 1 February 1960.

In the 1957 elections in Kerala, the Communist Party of India formed the government with the support of five independents. But in 1959, the Central Government dismissed the democratically elected government through the controversial Article 356 of the Indian Constitution following "The Liberation Struggle", even though the elected communist government was enjoying majority support within the legislature. After a short period of the President's rule, fresh elections were called in 1960.

There were 114 legislative assembly constituencies in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, 1957. Out of these 102 were single member constituencies while the number of double member constituencies was 12. One constituency was reserved for Schedule Caste. There were 64,77,665 electors in single member constituencies, while in double member constituencies there were 15,63,333 electors. Total 312 candidates contested for the 126 seats of the 114 constituencies in the Assembly. Poll percentage was 85.72%, an increase of 20.23% from 65.49% in 1957 assembly elections.

Four national parties, Communist Party of India, Indian National Congress, Praja Socialist Party and Bharatiya Jana Sangha along with the state party Muslim League took part in the assembly election. In these elections, Indian National Congress, Praja Socialist Party and Indian Union Muslim League formed a pre-poll alliance to counter the Communist Party of India. Together they fielded 125 candidates and supported an independent candidate, while the Communist Party of India fielded 108 candidates and gave party support to 16 independents.

...
Wikipedia