The comeback: After being hounded by the Janata Party government and even spending a week in Tihar jail, Indira Gandhi storms to power winning 353 of the 529 LS seats in the ’80 polls. The Congress(I) cultivates an obscurantist militant preacher, Bhindranwale, in an effort to undermine the Akalis. The seeds of terrorism are being sown.
Ten days after being appointed Congress(I) general secretary, Sanjay Gandhi dies in a crash while stunt-flying on his Cessna on June 23, 1980. Elder brother Rajiv (right) consoles Indira at the funeral. Rajiv, reluctant starter, soon takes his first tentative steps in politics to fill the vacuum.
