Second, the swing in favour of the Congress after 20 May was mainly on account of a sharp rise in the votes cast by women, Muslims, Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes—the traditional support base of the Indira Congress. This fact suggests that traditional Congress voters had not felt enthused enough to come out in large numbers and vote for Rajiv Gandhi on the first phase of polling. It is only after his assassination that they ventured out and voted in large numbers in favour of the Congress. The sympathy wave was also more pronounced in peninsular India than in the Gangetic Plain.
