9th Punjab Assembly

The 1985 Punjab Legislative Assembly election was the ninth Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) election of the state. Shiromani Akali Dal emerged as the victorious with 73 seats in the 117-seat legislature in the election. The Indian National Congress became the official opposition, holding 34 seats. On 11 May 1987, Assembly was dissolved and president rule was imposed.^[b]

Ninth Punjab Legislative Assembly
Punjab Legislative Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Founded	14 October 1985
Disbanded	11 May 1987
Preceded by	Eighth Punjab Legislative Assembly
Succeeded by	10th Punjab Assembly
Leadership
Speaker[1]	Ravi Inder Singh (1985-1986)
	Surjit Singh Minhas (1986-1987)
Deputy Speaker[2]	Nirmal Singh Kahlon (1985-1986)
	Jaswant Singh (1986-1987)
Leader of House (Chief Minister)	Surjit Singh Barnala
Leader of the Opposition	Gurbinder Kaur Brar
Structure
Seats	117[3]
Political groups	Government (73)[a]   SAD (73) Opposition (44)   INC (32)   BJP (6)   CPI (1)   JP (1)   IND (4)
Length of term	1985-1987
Elections
Voting system	first-past-the-post
Last election	1985
Next election	1992

Background

Insurgency

Main article: Insurgency in Punjab

Dissolution 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]