Going down the memory lane, first Assembly elections in Bihar was held in 1937 with 152 members during the British Raj. Mohammad Yunus became the first Prime Minister (now called Chief Minister) of Bihar. After the independence, the first Assembly elections in Bihar took place in the year 1952 as per the provisions of the Constitution of India. With 331 members of which 1 was nominated, Dr. Shri Krishna Singh became the first chief minister of independent India’s Bihar.
During the second assembly elections in 1957, the number of seats were reduced to 318. Later in the year 1977, the seats were again increased from 318 to 324. And finally, in the year 2000 when Jharkhand became a separate state, the number of seats came down to 243.
Till now, the state of Bihar have had 16 terms of Assembly terms. Out of these, Assemblies were dissolved 4 times before completing the full term of five years. Let us understand when and why legislative assemblies were dissolved in Bihar.
4th Bihar Assembly (1967 -1969)
For the first time during the 4th Vidhan Sabha which commenced on March, 17 1967 was dissolved on February 26, 1969. Mahamaya Prasad Sinha of Jan Kranti Dal took charge as the CM and continued for the next 330 days, he was succeeded by Satish Prasad Singh and BP Mandal of Samyukta Socialist party for 5 and 31 days. Later the seat fell into the hands of the Indian National Congress’s Bhola Prasad Shastri who later continued for next 100 days and finally President’s rule was imposed in the state from June 29, 1968 till February, 26 1969. The 712 days old Assembly saw 4 different chief ministers.
5th Bihar Assembly (February to March, 1972)
Just like the preceding term, the fifth term also saw a variety of Chief Ministers. During this term, the chair of CM fell into the hands of 4 different people - 3 times to the Indian National Congress and once to Socialist party. President’s rule was imposed twice, once in between for 8 months from July 1969 to February 1970 and the other before the term was dissolved. The assembly functioned for a total of 1,126 days before it was finally dissolved.
7th Bihar Assembly, (1977 to 1980)
Just after the national emergency was lifted, the country was booming with anti-Congress sentiments, Janta Party rose to power during this time and Karpuri Thakur took over as the new CM of Bihar. Later he was succeeded by Ram Sundar Das of the same party after 2 years in office. Das was incumbent in office for around one year after which the assembly was dissolved and President’s rule was imposed again. During this term, the government functioned for 968 days.
13th Bihar Assembly, (March 2005 to November 2005)
President’s rule was imposed, after Rabri Devi’s 4-year term and additional 360 days of being in power. The assembly was dissolved and the 13th term did not see any Chief Minister
Other Related Facts
The first Chief Minister of state of Bihar late Dr. Shri Krishna Singh is also the longest serving CM with 14 years and additional 304 days in office who was succeeded by Nitish Kumar’s 13 years and 304 days in office.
Till now Bihar has seen around 7 situations of President’s rule, with first time in 1968 and the most recent in 2005. The longest President’s rule was around 240 days and the shortest was of 7 days.