1996 Kerala Legislative Assembly election
The 1996 Kerala Legislative Assembly election was held in May 1996 to elect members to the Kerala State Assembly. Polls were held simultaneously in all 140 seats and resulted in a voter turnout of 71.16%.
All 140 seats in the Kerala Legislative Assembly 71 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 71.16% (2.26) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kerala, India Kerala, one of the states in South India, has an electorate of more than 21 million people. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The then Leader of opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan lost from Mararikulam, a Marxist bastion. It is only the second instance in Kerala that the chief ministerial candidate of a major party lost in an election (In 1965, R. Sankar, former Congress Chief Minister lost from the Attingal constituency. However, in that election, no party was able to form a government). On 20 May 1996, a 14 member cabinet of Left Democratic Front led by former Chief Minister E. K. Nayanar was sworn in. Nayanar was not an elected member of the assembly at that time, and was later elected from Thalassery Constituency. Nayanar subsequently went on to become the longest serving Chief Minister of the state.