ABSTRACT
Oil May 21, 1991 Rajiv Gandhi, leader of the Congress-I party in the 1991 national election, was assassinated, his face and chest blown away by a violent explosion. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had sent Indian military force, the Indian Peace Keeping Force, to Sri Lanka to disarm the Liberation Tigers of Tamil EElam. Rajiv Gandhi's assassination stands in marked contrast to Indira Gandhi's and Mahatma Gandhi's. After Indira Gandhi's death Delhi mobs, said to have been instigated and protected by Congress leaders, attacked and killed two thousand Sikhs. Rajiv Gandhi was said to have won Congress's greatest electoral victory with the help of a sympathy vote. With Rajiv Gandhi's death on May 21, 1991, being for or against Congress ceased to be the principal cleavage in Indian politics. The effect of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination on the 1991 election seems to add a new dimension to the way elections outcomes can be explained.
