NEW DELHI: The Congress-I has always won the general elections against a divided opposition and even in the worst of times in 1977 bagged over one-third of the votes a poll analysis shows.
The Congress-I lost only twice in 1977 and 1989 since independence and both times it did so to a largely united opposition. However the party got 34.5% votes in 1977 and 5% more in 1989. The Congress had secured record votes (49.10%) during the 1984 elections after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The Indian electorate has decisively voted for change only twice. In 1977 the Janata Party was swept into power riding the crest on the Janata wave by winning 295 out of 542 seats for which elections were held.
The second decisive vote came in 1980 when the Congress-I was returned to power capturing 352 of the 527 seats.
Though the Congress lost in 1977 it was the second-largest party getting 154 seats followed by CPI-M with 22 and CPI with seven.
The Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) polled 41.32% of the total votes polled during 1977 elections which was so far the record for any single opposition party during the post-independence election scenario.
The united opposition which routed the Congress in 1977 however lost heavily in 1980 as the party had been split leading to multi-cornered contests. The congress came back to power with 352 of the 527 seats.
Fighting a divided opposition the Congress secured a sweeping victory during 1984 riding the crest on Indira Gandhi’s sympathy wave.
The opposition parties were reduced to negligible strength.
During the 1989 Lok Sabha elections facing a challenge from the five-member National Front and the left parties the Congress I secured just 39.53% votes electing 196 candidates out of 522 seals.
The national front-line party’s alliance supported by the BJP had formed the government in January 1990 headed by Janata Dal leader V P Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 19, 1991
