Who was appointed as Prime Minister by the President using personal discretion…

Concept

Article 75 of the Constitution vests the President with the power to appoint the Prime Minister. Ordinarily, the majority party or coalition first settles on its parliamentary leader, and the President simply invites that leader to form the government. When a sitting Prime Minister dies suddenly and the ruling party has not yet completed this formal leader-selection process, the President must exercise personal discretion in judging who is best placed to command majority support in the Lok Sabha.

Application

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. Senior Congress leaders recommended Rajiv Gandhi to the President that same day, but the Congress Parliamentary Party had not yet formally elected its leader when he was sworn in. Acting ahead of that formal process, President Giani Zail Singh exercised his discretionary power and administered the oath of office to Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister that evening, judging him best placed to command the support of the Congress parliamentary party; the party formally ratified the choice afterward.

Cross-check

Checking each distractor's own route to office rules them out for this scenario:

• Charan Singh became Prime Minister in July 1979 after a split within the ruling coalition in Parliament, not after a sitting Prime Minister's death.

• VP Singh became Prime Minister in December 1989 after a general election produced a hung Lok Sabha, an electoral scenario rather than a sudden-vacancy one.

• AB Vajpayee first became Prime Minister in 1996, also after a general election left no party with a majority.

Answer: Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister appointed by presidential discretion following the sudden 1984 vacancy.