General elections were held in India on 3 and 6 January 1980 to elect the members of the seventh Lok Sabha. Indian National Congress (Indira), led by Indira Gandhi, won landslide victory in the election, winning 353 seats.
Background The Janata Party alliance came into power in the 1977 general elections amidst public anger with the Indian National Congress (R) and the Emergency. However, its position was weak; the loose coalition barely held on to a majority with only 295 seats in the Lok Sabha and never quite had a firm grip on power. Bharatiya Lok Dal leaders Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram, who had quit the Congress, were members of the Janata alliance but were at loggerheads with Prime Minister Morarji Desai. The Janata Party, an amalgam of socialists and Hindu nationalists, split in 1979 when several coalition members including the Bharatiya Lok Dal of Charan Singh and several members of the Socialist Party withdrew support for the government. Subsequently, Desai lost a vote of confidence in parliament and resigned.
Charan Singh, who had retained some partners of the Janata alliance, was sworn in as prime minister in June 1979. The Indian National Congress (Indira), which succeeded the Indian National Congress (Requisition) from 1978 promised to support Singh in parliament but later backed out just two days before the Government was scheduled to prove its majority on the floor of Lok Sabha. Charan Singh, forced to resign, called for elections in January 1980 and is the only prime minister of India never to have obtained the confidence of Parliament.
In the run up to the general elections, Indira Gandhi's leadership faced a formidable political challenge from a galaxy of regional satraps and prominent leaders of Janata party like Satyendra Narayan Sinha and Karpuri Thakur in Bihar, Ramakrishna Hegde in Karnataka, Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra, Devi Lal in Haryana & Biju Patnaik in Orissa. Janata Party contested the election with Jagjivan Ram as its prime ministerial candidate.Jagjivan Ram: Most experienced artful dodger of Indian politics India Today, 23 December 2014 However, internal feud between Janata Party leaders and the political instability in the country worked in favour of Indira Gandhi's Congress (I), that reminded voters of the strong government of Indira Gandhi during campaigning.
Results
Results by state/union territory +State/Union TerritorySeatsINC(I)JP(S)LFTJNPOTHA & N Islands110000Andhra Pradesh42410001Arunachal Pradesh220000Assam220000Bihar54305487Chandigarh110000Dadra and Nagar Haveli110000Goa, Daman and Diu200002Gujarat26250010Haryana1054010Himachal Pradesh440000Jammu & Kashmir610005Karnataka28270010Kerala2050807Lakshadweep100001Madhya Pradesh40350041Maharashtra48390081Manipur210100Meghalaya110000Mizoram100001Nagaland100001Delhi760010Orissa21201000Pondicherry110000Punjab13120001Rajasthan25182041Sikkim100001Tamil Nadu392000019Tripura200200Uttar Pradesh855129131West Bengal42403800Total52935341543150 NOTE: LFT (Left Front) consisted of CPI(M), CPI, RSP and AIFB
See also List of members of the 7th Lok Sabha
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