1961 Odisha Legislative Assembly election

The elections were held for 140 constituencies, of which 25 were reserved for Scheduled Castes, 29 for Scheduled Tribes and 86 unreserved.

There are three national parties (the Communist Party of India, Congress and the Praja Socialist Party), one state party (Ganatantra Parishad), one registered unrecognised party (Jharkhand Party) and some Independent Politicians. All took part in this assembly election. The Congress party won a clear majority for the first time in Orissa by winning 58% of the seats with a vote share of 43.28%. The 1961 election was the first decisive election which resulted non-coalition govt. in the state.{{Cite web|title=Orissa 1961|url=https://old.eci.gov.in/files/file/3619-orissa-1961/|access-date=2021-05-08|website=Election Commission of India|language=en-IN}} The post of Chief Minister saw successive replacements during this period. Bijayananda Pattanaik became the Chief Minister of Odisha and remained in power till 1963, when he was called by the national high command for reforming the party. He was replaced by the Bengali Biren Mitra, and finally by Sadasiba Tripathy in 1965 when corruption charges were brought against Mitra.

{{election table|title=Summary of results of the 1961 Odisha Legislative Assembly election{{cite web |title=Orissa 1961 |url=https://old.eci.gov.in/files/file/3619-orissa-1961/ |website=Election commission of India |access-date=7 May 2021}}|sortable=yes}}

!colspan=10|File:India Odisha Legislative Assembly 1961.svg

|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9; text-align:center;"

! colspan=2|Party !! Flag !! Seats
Contested !! Won !! Net Change
in seats !! % of
Seats

! Votes !! Vote % !! Change in
vote %

|- style="background: #90EE90;"

| {{party color cell|Indian National Congress}}

| style="text-align:left;" |Indian National Congress

|

| 140 || 82 || {{increase}} 26 || 58.57 || 12,69,000 || 40.58 || {{increase}} 5.02

|-

|{{Full party name with color|Ganatantra Parishad}}

|

| 121 || 37 || {{decrease}} 14 || 26.42 || 6,55,099 || 20.95 || {{decrease}} 1.51

|-

| {{party color cell|Praja Socialist Party}}

| style="text-align:left;" |Praja Socialist Party

|

| 43 || 10 || {{decrease}} 1 || 7.14 || 3,22,305 || 10.30 || {{increase}} 20.03

|-

| {{party color cell|Communist Party of India}}

| style="text-align:left;" |Communist Party of India

|

| 35 || 4 || {{decrease}} 5 || 3.57 || 2,33,971 || 7.48 || {{increase}} 18.92

|-

| {{party color cell|Jharkhand Party}}

| style="text-align:left;" |Jharkhand Party

|

| 9 || 0 || "New" || 0 || 25,602 || 0.81 || "New"

|-

| {{Party name with colour|Independent politician}}

|

| 187 || 7 || {{decrease}} 6 || 5 || 4,26,302 || 13.63 || N/A

|- class="unsortable" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"

! colspan = 3|

! style="text-align:center;" |Total Seats !! 140 ({{steady}} 0) !! style="text-align:center;" |Voters !! 85,51,743 !! style="text-align:center;" |Turnout !! colspan = 2|31,27,245 (36.57%)

|}

{{reflist}}

{{Odisha elections}}

Category:State Assembly elections in Odisha

Category:1961 elections in India