8th Punjab Assembly

The 1980 Punjab Legislative Assembly election was the eighth Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) election of the state. Indian National Congress emerged as the victorious with 63 seats in the 117-seat legislature in the election. The Shiromani Akali Dal became the official opposition, holding 37 seats. On 6 October 1983, Assembly was placed under suspension and president rule was imposed^[b] and then dissolved on 26 June 1985.

Eighth Punjab Legislative Assembly
Punjab Legislative Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Founded	23 June 1980
Disbanded	26 June 1985
Preceded by	Seventh Punjab Legislative Assembly
Succeeded by	Ninth Punjab Legislative Assembly
Leadership
Speaker[1]	Brij Bhushan Mehra
Deputy Speaker[2]	Guizar Singh
Leader of House (Chief Minister)	Darbara Singh (1980-1983)
Leader of the Opposition	Parkash Singh Badal (1980-1983)
Structure
Seats	117[3]
Political groups	Government (63)[a]   INC (63) Opposition (54)   SAD (37)   CPI (9)   CPIM (5)   BJS (1)   IND (2)
Length of term	1980-1985
Elections
Voting system	first-past-the-post
Last election	1980
Next election	1985

Background

Insurgency

Main article: Insurgency in Punjab

Suspension of Assembly

Notes

1. The given members of parties were at the time of the formation of the Government. The numbers changed later on due to defections, resignations, mergers or splits
2. President's rule may be imposed when the "government in a state is not able to function as per the Constitution", which often happens because no party or coalition has a majority in the assembly. When President's rule is in force in a state, its council of ministers stands dissolved. The office of chief minister thus lies vacant, and the administration is taken over by the governor, who functions on behalf of the central government. At times, the legislative assembly also stands dissolved.^[4]