Parliamentary election in India 1992 (Punjab)

The 1992 Lok Sabha election in Punjab took place on February 15, 1992, about 8 months after the rest of India was elected . The same day the elections for the Punjab Parliament were held. The elections were boycotted by the vast majority of the Sikh population and won by the Congress Party .

background

People killed in Punjab from 1981 to 1991 (not counting members of the security forces and Sikh extremists)

year	Hindus	Sikhs	total
1981	10	3	13
1982	8th	5	13
1983	35	40	75
1984	237	122	359
1985	45	17th	63
1986	324	193	520
1987	425	478	910
1988	858	1044	1949
1989	442	734	1188
1990	743	1694	2467
1991	744	1874	2591

Since the early 1980s, the clashes in the Indian state of Punjab between radical Sikhs and the Indian security forces and state institutions had reached unprecedented levels of violence. The main victims were the civilian population, both Sikhs and Hindus , who were instrumentalized and terrorized by both sides. The first climax of the disputes was the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar , in which militant Sikhs had holed up, on March 3–8. June 1984 reached by Indian army units ( Operation Blue Star ). On October 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , who was responsible for the deployment of the army, was murdered by two of her Sikh bodyguards in Delhi. Several days of pogrom-like riots against Sikhs, especially in Delhi , followed, killing thousands. In the parliamentary elections in December 1984 , Rajiv Gandhi was elected Prime Minister. The Punjab did not take part in the election due to the security situation. On June 24, 1985 between Gandhi and the temperate was Akali Dal -Leader Harchand Singh Longowal the so-called Punjab Agreement ( Punjab accord ) concluded that came to meet the demands of the Sikhs. Although Longowal was murdered as a "traitor" by a Sikh extremist just two months later, the situation eased temporarily and on September 25, 1985 the suspended elections in Punjab could be rescheduled.

In the following years, however, Rajiv Gandhi pursued such an inconsistent and hesitant policy and essential points of the Punjab Agreement were not implemented, so that the Sikhs were again radicalized. The security situation deteriorated again to such an extent that the government of the Punjab elected in 1985 under Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala was suspended and the state was placed under president's rule on May 11, 1987 . Since the situation did not calm down, but on the other hand, according to the constitution, a president's rule was only planned for a maximum of 1 year until new elections had to take place, even the Indian constitution had to be changed several times. The 59th amendment in 1988 authorized the central government to declare president's rule in Punjab for up to three years. At the instigation of the newly elected government of VP Singh in 1989 , this constitutional amendment was repealed by the 63rd constitutional amendment in 1989/90. Before the 3-year period expired on May 10, 1990, however, the 64th Amendment to the Constitution extended the President's rule in Punjab for a further 6 months.

After the 1991 general election

See also : Parliamentary Election in India 1991

A new parliament was elected in India in May and June 1991 . The state of Punjab, as well as the state of Jammu and Kashmir , did not participate due to the unrest. Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar had originally made an agreement with the more moderate faction of the militant Sikhs, according to which elections for both the Lok Sabha and the regional parliament would be held in Punjab. However, this agreement was undermined by terrorist acts by the more radical Sikhs. Shortly before the election date, violence in the Punjab escalated dramatically. 24 constituency candidates (three for the Lok Sabha and 21 for the regional parliament) have been murdered in Punjab. On June 15, 1991, a week before the Punjab election date, Sikh terrorists raided two trains near Ludhiana , killing at least 80 Hindus. Shortly before the election date, the Chief Election Commissioner decided, after consulting the leadership of the Congress Party, to postpone the election date in Punjab to September 25, 1991.

The renewed postponement of the announced election had far-reaching consequences. The governor of Punjab Om Prakash Malhotra , who had campaigned for the compliance of the election date, resigned in protest. Sikh politicians from all sides decided at a meeting in Anandpur in September to boycott future elections because the central government could not guarantee that they would be "free and fair". The new Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao of the Congress Party postponed the election date again to February 15, 1992. The hope associated with new elections to the Punjab Parliament and in the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Punjab was that of the establishment an elected government similar to 1985 to come back to orderly circumstances.

Election process

The election on February 15, 1992 took place with a massive presence of around 250,000 military, paramilitary and police officers. A total of 81 candidates applied in the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies. In the 1989 election there were 227. 1,084 candidates ran for the 117 constituencies of the Punjab Parliament. Each candidate was assigned 32 people as an escort (50 people and more for prominent politicians). Under these massive security measures, the elections went smoothly. Except for a bomb explosion in Ludiana with one dead and 10 injured, there were no other victims.

In the elections in the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) put up 9 candidates, the two Communist Parties together 4 ( CPI : 1, CPM : 3), the Congress Party 13, the Janata Dal 4, the Janata Party 1, the Lok Dal 2 and the Bahujan Samaj Party 12. Of the Akali Dal politicians, only the Akali Dal (Kabul) and Akali Dal (S) factions took part in the Indian Electoral Commission as Shiromani Akali Dal (Simaranjit Singh Mann ) (SAD (M)) took part in the election and nominated 3 candidates. The majority of even moderate Sikh politicians stuck to their announced boycott position. In its election manifesto, the BJP spoke out resolutely in favor of combating terrorism and against the threat to national unity through separatism. She advocated the annexation of the city of Chandigarh and Punjabi- speaking areas of Haryana to the Punjab , which was envisaged in the 1985 Punjab Agreement . The Congress Party emphasized the values ​​of secularism and democracy and invoked the Punjab Agreement, the communist parties spoke out, as in the 1991 election, in a sweeping attack against " Hindutva chauvinists, Khalistan terrorists and Kashmiri-Muslim secessionists" and criticized the election boycott of the Akali Dal politicians as "unwise and undemocratic" and the actions of the Congress Party government as "clumsy and dishonest".

At just under 24%, the voter turnout was lower than ever before in an election in Punjab. The post-election analysis showed that voter turnout was very low, especially in rural Sikh areas. More than 300 villages did not cast a single vote.

Voter and turnout

Eligible voters	Voters	voter turnout	Invalid votes	Number of polling stations
13,169,797	3,155,523	23.96%	4.41%	14,667

Result

Constituency results in Punjab: Indian National Congress Bahujan Samaj Party



12 of the 13 constituencies were won by the Congress party's candidates. In the constituency 13-Ferozepur the candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was successful. Due to the lack of Akali Dal, the BSP rose to become the second strongest party in Punjab. The third party with the largest number of votes was the BJP.

Overall result in Punjab

Political party	Abbreviation	be right	percent	Seats
Indian National Congress	INC	1,486,289	49.27%	13
Bahujan Samaj Party	E.G	594,628	19.71%	1
Bharatiya Janata Party	BJP	497,999	16.51%	0
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPM	119.902	3.98%	0
Shiromani Akali Dal (man)	SAD (M)	77,970	2.79%	0
Communist Party of India	CPI	47,226	1.56%	0
Janata Dal	JD	39,220	1.30%	0
Janata party	JNP	27,966	0.93%	0
Lok Dal	LKD	2,839	0.09%	0
The rest	-	122,358	4.06%	0
Total valid votes		3,016,397	100.0%	13

1. ↑ ^{a b} Candidates from the moderate SAD factions Akali Dal (Kabul) and Akali Dal (S) stood under the names Shiromani Akali Dal (Simaranjit Singh Mann) or Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann) (SAD (M)) .

Evaluation and consequences

Terrorist violence decreased in Punjab after the 1992 election

From the perspective of the Rao government, the election in Punjab could largely be seen as a success. It was particularly positive that, thanks to the massive presence of the security forces, there were almost no deaths at all (in the national parliamentary elections last year, there were at least 250 deaths). The 12 additional Congress Party MPs came in handy for the Rao government, which, as a minority government, was dependent on the support of other parties. The elections to the Punjab Parliament were also won by the Congress Party (with 86 out of 117 constituencies), which then formed the Punjab government. President's rule over Punjab could then be repealed. The low turnout was a big question mark. The vast majority of the Sikh population had boycotted the election and it seemed uncertain whether the new Congress Party government had sufficient legitimacy in the eyes of the Sikhs.

Naturally, the evaluation of the election result by the other parties - the losers - turned out differently. The BJP party president Murli Manohar Joshi described the election result as “distorted and one-sided” due to the low turnout, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (Janata Dal) spoke of a “rigged” election, an Akali Dal (M) spokesman threw the Rao government as “Hindu -fundamentalist aspirations ”, while Akali Dal (K) representatives said that the militants were responsible for the defeat. The communists' judgment was inconsistent.

In the further course it became clear that the elections actually marked a new political beginning in Punjab. The episode of violence largely came to an end. The election boycott by the Akali Dal leaders did not last long. When Chief Minister Beant Singh (Congress Party) was the victim of a car bomb attack by Sikh terrorists on August 31, 1995 , many feared a resurgence of violence. But this did not happen.

literature

• JC Aggarwal, SP Agrawal: Modern History of Punjab. In: SP Agrawal (Ed.): Concepts in Communication Informatics & Librarianship-37. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-7022-431-4 .
• Gurharpal Singh: The Punjab Elections 1992: Breakthrough or Breakdown? Asian Survey, Vol. 32, No. 11 (Nov. 1992), pp. 988-999. JSTOR 2645266

Individual evidence

1. ^ JC Aggarwal, SP Agrawal: Modern History of Punjab. Chapter 12: Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal accord, 1985. In: SP Agrawal (Ed.): Concepts in Communication Informatics & Librarianship-37. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-7022-431-4 . Appendix p. 228, quoted from The Times of India. February 9, 1992.
2. ↑ THE CONSTITUTION (FIFTY-NINTH AMENDMENT) ACT, 1988 Mar. 30, 1988, accessed on 28 February 2015 (English). 
3. ↑ THE CONSTITUTION (SIXTY-THIRD AMENDMENT) ACT, 1989. January 6, 1990, accessed on February 28, 2015 (English). 
4. ↑ THE CONSTITUTION (SIXTY-FOURTH AMENDMENT) ACT, 1990. April 16, 1990, accessed on February 28, 2015 (English). 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} J. C. Aggarwal, SP Agrawal: Modern History of Punjab. In: SP Agrawal (Ed.): Concepts in Communication Informatics & Librarianship-37. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi 1992, ISBN 81-7022-431-4 . Chapter 15: Political parties on Punjab: Election Manifestoes 1991 and 1992, pp. 139ff
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Gurharpal Singh: The Punjab Elections 1992: Breakthrough or Breakdown? In: Asian Survey . tape 32 , no. 11 , November 1992, pp. 988-999 , JSTOR : 2645266 .
7. ↑ Barbara Crossette: Extremists in India Kill 80 on 2 Trains As Voting Nears End. The New York Times, June 16, 1991, accessed February 28, 2015 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on December 22, 2018 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence). 
9. ↑ Aggarwal & Agrawal: Chapter 17: Statements of political leaders, 1992, p. 194