The Akali Dal's return after the Punjab Accord
What happened
The Shiromani Akali Dal returned to power in Punjab, defeating the Indian National Congress in a landslide.
It won 73 of the 117 seats.
That left it 14 seats clear of a majority.
The SAD took 62.4% of the seats on 38.0% of the vote.
The INC finished second with 32 seats on 37.9% of the vote.
The campaign
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal signed the Punjab Accord on 24 July 1985, addressing Sikh political and river-water grievances and ending the Akali agitation. A group of hardline Akali leaders rejected it the next day as a 'sell-out', splitting the party's hardline wing from Longowal's own leadership two months before the vote.12
On 20 August 1985, gunmen shot Longowal after he addressed a rally at Gurdwara Akal Prakash in Sherpur, and he died that evening. Surjit Singh Barnala then took over leadership of the Akali Dal faction that had signed the accord, becoming its chief ministerial face for the election that September.34
Amarinder Singh, who had resigned from Congress and the Lok Sabha in 1984 to protest Operation Blue Star, joined the Shiromani Akali Dal that August and stood as its candidate for the Talwandi Sabo assembly seat.5
- 1Rajiv–Longowal Accord precedes the 1985 election — Rajiv–Longowal Accord, 1985 Punjab Legislative Assembly election
- 2Hardline Akali Leaders Reject the Accord as a 'Sell-Out' — Rajiv–Longowal Accord, Punjab Accord: Signed in Good Faith, Paid With Blood, Consigned to Irretrievable Archives
- 3Akali Dal President Longowal Assassinated at Sherpur — Harchand Singh Longowal, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal: The Fateful Day of 20 August 1985, and a Ledger Still Open
- 4Barnala Takes Over Akali Dal Leadership After Longowal's Death — A century of splintering: How Akali Dal & its fractured legacy have shaped Punjab's political landscape, Surjit Singh Barnala
- 5Amarinder Singh Joins Akali Dal, Contests From Talwandi Sabo — Amarinder Singh, Amarinder Singh
What changed
The clearest shift ran between Punjab's two largest parties.
29 seats swung from the Indian National Congress (I) to the SAD, more than between any other pair of parties that year.
The SAD itself grew from 37 seats to 73 seats this time.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, rose +1.1 pp from the previous election.
Notable numbers
The closest race was at Dharamkot, Punjab, decided by 277 votes.
Sujanpur, Punjab had the widest victory of the election, 56.5% of the vote.
Sultanpur, Punjab recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 80.8%.
Khadoor Sahib, Punjab recorded the lowest, 43.8%.
Ludhiana Rural, Punjab was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 1,45,347 on its rolls.
Samana, Punjab drew the most crowded ballot of the election, with 22 candidates standing.
The backdrop
Parliament's Punjab Reorganisation Act took effect on 1 November 1966, splitting off the new state of Haryana and transferring hill districts to Himachal Pradesh, and making Chandigarh a shared union territory capital.6
The 1967 assembly election was the first held on this reduced map.6
- 6Punjab Reorganisation Act splits off Haryana and Himachal hill areas — Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966