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1983 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election

← 1977 17 November 1983 to 24 November 1983 1987 →
all 75 seats in Legislative Assembly 38 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	73.2%
First party Second party   Leader Farooq Abdullah Party JKNC INC Last election 47 11 Seats won 46 26 Seat change 1 15   Third party Fourth party   Party BJP JKPC Last election new party new Seats won 0 1 Seat change -
Chief Minister before election Farooq Abdullah JKNC Elected Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah JKNC

Elections for the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir were held over October 1983. The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah was appointed Chief Minister.

Background

The 1983 Jammu and Kashmir elections cemented the political polarisation on religious lines after Indira Gandhi campaigned aggressively in the state, raising the bogey of a 'Muslim invasion' of the Jammu region, alluding to the Resettlement Bill passed by the-then National Conference government, which gave the state's residents who left for Pakistan before 1954 the right to return to the state, reclaim their properties, and resettle.

Result

Indira Gandhi's strategy yielded dividends in the 1983 state elections and the Congress won 26 seats, while the NC secured 46. Barring an odd constituency, all the victories of the Congress were in the Jammu and Ladakh regions, while National Conference swept the Kashmir Valley. The 1983 election established the model for any future Congress-NC alliance - the Congress allotting itself seats mainly in the Jammu and Ladakh regions, while the National Conference limiting itself to the Kashmir Valley.

Farooq Abdullah was sworn in as the Chief Minister Again.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference	1,039,064	47.29	46	1
	Indian National Congress	666,112	30.32	26	15
	Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference	100,622	4.58	1	New
	Others	170,415	7.76	0	0
	Independents	220,904	10.05	2	2
Total		2,197,117	100.00	75	1
Valid votes		2,197,117	96.71
Invalid/blank votes		74,692	3.29
Total votes		2,271,809	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,101,665	73.24
Source: ECI

Results by constituency

References

1. ^ Statistical Report on General Election, 1983, The Election Commission of India.
2. Jammu & Kashmir Assembly Election Results in 1983, Elections.in website, retrieved 27 April 2017.
3. Poke Me: BJP mustn't play the 'Jammu card' in next month's J&K elections, The Economic Times, 30 October 2014.
4. "Jammu & Kashmir 1983". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
5. "Statistical Report on General Election, 1983 to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Archived from the original (pdf) on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2024.

Bibliography

• Bose, Sumantra (2003), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-01173-2
• Guha, Ramachandra (2008), India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, Pan Macmillan, ISBN 978-0330396110
• Schofield, Victoria (2003) , Kashmir in Conflict, London and New York: I. B. Taurus & Co, ISBN 1860648983
• Widmalm, Sten (November 1997), "The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir", Asian Survey, 37 (11): 1005–1030, doi:10.2307/2645738, JSTOR 2645738
• Widmalm, Sten (2002), Kashmir in Comparative Perspective: Democracy and Violent Separatism in India, Psychology Press, ISBN 978-0-7007-1578-7

• 1983 State Assembly elections in India
• State Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir
• 1980s in Jammu and Kashmir