1984 Indian general election

General elections were held in India in 1984 soon after the assassination of previous Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, though the vote in Assam and Punjab was delayed until 1985 due to ongoing fighting.

1984 Indian general election

24, 27 and 28 December 1984
541 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha 271 seats needed for a majority
Registered	400,375,333
Turnout	64.01% ( 7.09 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Rajiv Gandhi N.T. Rama Rao Party INC TDP Last election 42.69%, 353 seats – Seats won 414 30 Seat change 61 New Popular vote 120,107,044 10,132,859 Percentage 46.86% 3.95% Swing 4.17 pp New   Third party Fourth party   Leader E. M. S. Namboodiripad Atal Bihari Vajpayee Party CPI(M) BJP Last election 6.24%, 37 seats – Seats won 22 2 Seat change 15 New Popular vote 13,809,950 18,202,853 Percentage 5.87% 7.74% Swing 0.37 pp New
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Rajiv Gandhi INC Prime Minister after election Rajiv Gandhi INC

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The elections were a landslide victory for the Indian National Congress of Rajiv Gandhi (son of Indira Gandhi), which won 404 of the 514 seats elected in 1984 and a further 10 in the delayed elections. The Telugu Desam Party of N. T. Rama Rao, a regional political party from the state of Andhra Pradesh, was the second largest party, winning 30 seats, thus achieving the distinction of becoming the first regional party to become a national opposition party. Voting was held immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in November and most of India supported Congress.

The 1984 elections were the last in which a single party won a majority of seats until 2014, and the only time to date in which a party won more than 400 seats.