Madhavsinh Solanki — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

He became state Congress president in 1975. He had first been elected as an MLA in 1957.

He admitted delivering the Bofors note to Parliament on 30 March 1992. He resigned the next day.

His government acted on the Baxi Commission’s recommendations. The order sparked protests almost at once.

Congress won a then-record 149 of 182 seats. It had won 142 seats in 1980.

KHAM joined Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims. Together they were roughly 75 percent of Gujarat.

Congress won a then-record 149 of 182 seats in the 1985 Gujarat state election, built on Solanki’s KHAM coalition strategy.

He handed Swiss Foreign Minister Rene Felber a written note stating that Indian investigations into the Bofors scandal had produced no results, widely read as an attempt to help stall the Swiss end of the probe. He resigned under pressure soon after.

The 1985 unrest was an escalation of the same reservation policy first introduced in 1981, not a fresh new order. It grew into sustained, often communal rioting after Congress’s record 1985 election win.

KHAM stood for Kshatriyas, Harijans (Dalits), Adivasis, and Muslims, a coalition that together made up roughly 75% of Gujarat’s population, deliberately looking past the traditionally dominant Patel community.

He resigned once already in March 1985, amid renewed anti-quota unrest just before that year’s election, then was sworn in fresh after Congress’s landslide win. Counted this way, he genuinely served four terms, not three.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, he reportedly told Switzerland’s Foreign Minister that Indian investigations into the Bofors scandal had failed to produce results, triggering his resignation.

His 1981 reservation policy for backward classes triggered sustained anti-reservation riots, leading to his resignation.

Solanki devised the KHAM strategy — a coalition of Kshatriyas, Harijans (Dalits), Adivasis, and Muslims.