Congress sets a new seat record
What happened
The Indian National Congress won a landslide victory in Gujarat, defeating the Janata Party.
It won 149 of the 182 seats.
That gave it 57 seats to spare above a majority.
The INC took 81.9% of the seats on 55.6% of the vote.
The JNP trailed far behind, with 14 seats on 19.3% of the vote.
The campaign
In January 1985 Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki's government changed its reservation policy, setting aside 18% of government positions for Other Backward Classes on top of the existing quotas for Dalits and Adivasis. The change became the central issue of the campaign ahead of the 5 March assembly election.1
On 18 February 1985 engineering students in Ahmedabad boycotted their preliminary exams in protest, then formed the All Gujarat Educational Reform Action Committee and began an indefinite strike, boycotting every exam. The state government responded by closing schools and colleges.2
AGERAC called a statewide bandh on 25 February, observed unevenly across Ahmedabad, that drew support from lawyers' and doctors' associations as well as student groups linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party.3
On 28 February a bus passenger died when the vehicle was set alight amid the unrest, a week before the vote. Violence eased in the days that followed, and polling went ahead as scheduled.4
- 1Solanki Government Raises OBC Reservation Quota — 1985 Gujarat riots, 1985 Gujarat riots
- 2Students Boycott Exams, Form AGERAC Over Quota Hike — 1985 Gujarat riots, 1985 Gujarat riots, 1985 Gujarat riots
- 3AGERAC Calls Bandh, Draws BJP-Linked Student Support — 1985 Gujarat riots, 1985 Gujarat riots
- 4Bus Passenger Killed in Anti-Reservation Arson Before Poll — 1985 Gujarat riots, 1985 Gujarat riots
What changed
This was Gujarat's biggest assembly win for any single party in the state's history to that point.
4 parties won seats in the whole election.
That gave the INC a supermajority, enough to run the assembly without needing any other party.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, barely moved, up +0.9 pp from the previous election.
Notable numbers
The closest race was Lunavada, Gujarat, decided by 103 votes — the margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second.
Kutiyana, Gujarat saw the widest margin of the election, won by 92.2% of the vote.
Chanasma, Gujarat recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 75.8%.
Sarkhej, Gujarat was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 2,45,514 on its rolls.
Himatnagar, Gujarat drew the most candidates of any seat, 16 names on the ballot.
The backdrop
Congress leader Madhavsinh Solanki had organized a coalition of Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim voters, known as the KHAM strategy, starting in 1980.5
That coalition helped deliver the INC its 81.9% seat share this election.
- 5KHAM coalition strategy and Congress's 1985 majority — KHAM theory