Atal Bihari Vajpayee was appointed the first president of the new party. Ramachandra Guha writes that despite the factional wars within the Janata government, its period in power had seen a rise in support for the RSS, marked by a wave of communal violence in the early 1980s. Despite this, the BJP under Vajpayee initially took a more moderate approach to Hindutva, to gain a wider appeal. This strategy was unsuccessful, as the BJP won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections of 1984. A few months prior to the election, Indira Gandhi was assassinated, creating a sympathy wave for the Congress that also contributed to the BJP's low tally, as the Congress won a record number of seats. This failure led to a shift in the party's stance; Advani was appointed party president, and the BJP returned to the hardline Hindutva of its predecessor.