India 1977-present

[jaichind]

In 1980 the voters of Rae Bareli had a choice between Indira Gandhi and Vijaya Raje Scindia... lol

Not sure why that is so funny.  It is true that Scindia was in INC for a while but she left INC pretty early to join SWA when SWA was formed as SWA and then BJS were the parties that often formed tactical alliance in Northern India with various ex-princes.  She pretty much stayed with BJS then JNP and then BJP after that.  True her son Madhavrao Scindia did not agree with her position and stayed with INC but that she will run on the JNP ticket against Indira Gandhi in 1980 is quiet normal as the BJS faction was with JNP at the time.

[jaichind]

What was going on in Assam exactly during this period?

Violence and political instability. So earlier in the 80s you had this thing, while later in the 80s (and in the 90s) it was more an issue of multiple separatist groups.

Yes. Of course one lead to another.  The Assam movement created Ahom based AGP which also provoked the creation of the Muslim based UMFA as proto-AIUDF.  AGP swept into power in 1985 as UMFA split the INC vote base.  AGP rule post 1985 was a complete disaster provoking both Bodo extremists in NDFB as well as the Ahom based separatists in ULFA.  1989 did not need to be so violent, it was AGP that completely blew it sky high by alienating its Ahom base as well as Bodos, Muslims and various Hill tribals all at the same time. 

[jaichind]

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Not something you necessarily expect to read about the world's largest democracy

Actually by the time the 1977 elections came around the economy was in fairly good shape relative to the early 1970s.  It was based that that INC confidently called elections and expected to win.   This assessment was actually shared by the JNP as well who only had hope to prevent an INC landslide.  What did the INC in for sure was the  forced sterilizations in rural North India as well as urban slum removals which turned its Dalit base in Northern urban areas against INC.    Note that in the South the INC actually continued to do well as the family planning campaign and slum removal campaign was a lot less active in the South.  The DMK ruling TN and that INC had to share power with CPI in Kerela meant in those states these campaign had even less focus and in turn helped the INC to sweep those states in 1977.

[jaichind]

In which the inability of Rajiv Gandhi to, you know, do his job effectively results in Congress getting a pasting across North India and losing office. His defeat marked the last time that a member of The Family would hold the office of Prime Minister (though not the last time that a member of The Family would hold power). The largest opposition party was Janata Dal (i.e. broadly speaking the socialist element of the Janata Party) and it was this party that formed a government under V.P. Singh. Unfortunately while Janata Dal was much more ideologically coherent than Janata it was dominated by Big Dramatic Personalities with a propensity for Big Dramatic Fallouts and you can probably guess what happened next... anyway this was also the first election in which the BJP established itself as a major party (and quite a few of the seats they gained in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh they have never lost) and the first in which the BSP, Shiv Sena and JMM won seats. No election in Assam (again).

Actually in terms of vote share INC led front did not do that badly in 1989.  It was almost the same as INC got in 1967 when INC actually won a slight majority of seats.  It actually did very well in Karnataka and AP which they did poorly in 1984.  INC did poorly in Northern India mostly because of a  real swing against INC AND a de facto tactical alliance between JD BJP and Left Front.

Also the JD government fell apart mostly because INC did well enough in 1989 that JD had a majority only if you add to JD seats those of BJP and Left Front.  In other words JD had to please it own internal factions AND BJP AND Left Front at the same time.  To break out of this JD tried to polarized the electorate along OBC vs non-OBC terms trying to become the OBC.  This lead the BJP to go for a counter-polarization of Hindus vs non-Hindus.  These cross pressures lead to the fall of the the JD government.  Chandra Shekhar merely came in to pick up the pieces to do a deal with INC to form a government.  He did not break the JD government.  It was broken by BJP and Left Front already.