1961 Orissa Legislative Assembly election

Elections to the Third Orissa Legislative Assembly were held 1961.

Constituencies

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, one state party, one registered unrecognised 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. The post of Chief Minister saw successive replacements during this period. Bijayananda Pattanaik became the Chief Minister of Orissa 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.