Punjab Assembly election of 1992: a boycott, a 22 percent turnout and a Congress government

Who: The voters of Punjab; the Congress, led in the state by its president Beant Singh; the Election Commission; about three lakh security personnel, with KPS Gill brought back to Punjab from the CRPF to head the security effort; the Kharku organisations, which announced a boycott; and the Akali Dal, whose leaders were undecided and mostly stayed out.

What: Punjab voted for a new Assembly on 19 February 1992, after a period of President's rule. The poll had been fixed once before. The June 1991 election was cancelled a day before voting after campaign violence killed at least 50 people, 24 of them candidates by the count of UPI (The Tribune says 29 candidates). This time the Disturbed Areas Act was in force and the three lakh security personnel in the state had been given wide powers. The Tribune records that the Kharku groups (it says 'militants') again announced a boycott and tried to derail the poll, that posters threatened candidates, and that there were a number of killings of potential voters; it also says the security forces ensured that no candidate was killed. Of the Akali Dal, only the Akali Dal (Kabul) was in the fray.

Turnout was very low. The Tribune puts it at 21.6 percent, against 67.6 percent in 1985; the Election Commission's statistical report, as summarised on Wikipedia, gives 23.82 percent. Congress won 87 seats, a clear two-thirds majority. The Bahujan Samaj Party won nine and became the main opposition, and the BJP won six. The rest went to the Communist parties, the Akali Dal, the Janata Dal, other small parties and independents. Beant Singh's term as Chief Minister began on 25 February 1992.

Where: Across Punjab.

Why it mattered: The poll ended President's rule and installed the Congress government that held office until Beant Singh was killed on 31 August 1995. With the Akali Dal's mainstream leaders mostly outside the contest and the Kharku groups calling for a boycott, the BSP became the main opposition. The Tribune's retrospective frames the poll as democracy ushered in despite low turnout.