Prime Minister of India

On 31 October 1984 while Rajiv Gandhi was in West Bengal, Indira Gandhi was shot by her two bodyguards in the garden of her official residence, at 1, Safdarjung Road at New Delhi while she was passing the wicket gate guarded by them. The bodyguards namely Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, after shooting her, dropped their weapons and surrendered. Beant Singh was shot to death on that day while Kehar Singh was arrested for his involvement in the conspiracy. He and Satwant Singh were given death sentence and hanged at the Tihar Jail at Delhi. Within hours of the assassination, the then President Zail Singh and Union Minister and a senior leader of the Congress party Sardar Buta Singh convinced him to become the new Prime Minister of India. After he assumed office, Rajiv Gandhi asked Zail Singh to hold fresh elections and dissolve the Parliament as the Lower House completed a fiveyear term. The history of the Indian Parliament saw a landslide victory for the party, which gave Rajiv Gandhi complete power of government. He also became the President of the Congress party.