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| 1989, Nov. 22–26 |
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| Rajiv Gandhi called an election several weeks ahead of schedule. Congress (I) won only 193 seats; the BJP won control of four states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Bhojpuri heartland (a linguistic cultural area in the eastern Gangetic Plain), center for Hindu fundamentalist political agitations. | 1 |
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| Dec |
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| V. P. Singh was elected leader of the Janata Dal Parliamentary Party and became prime minister. Devi Lal, the populist chief minister of Haryana and a powerful rural leader, was named deputy prime minister. (But by July of following year, competition between V. P. Singh and Devi Lal led to the dismissal of Devi Lal.) | 2 |
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