Indian general election, 1998

Indian general election, 1998
India
February 16, February 22, and February 28, 1998

All 545 seats in the Lok Sabha
273 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sitaram Kesri
Party BJP INC
Alliance NDA INC+
Leader's seat Lucknow Bihar
(Rajya Sabha)
Seats won 254 144
Seat change +25 +1
Popular vote 139,701,871 98,140,471
Percentage 37.21% 26.14%

Prime Minister before election

Inder Kumar Gujral
UF

Elected Prime Minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee
NDA

General elections were held in India in 1998, after the government elected in 1996 collapsed and the 12th Lok Sabha was convened. New elections were called when Indian National Congress (INC) left the United Front government led by I.K. Gujral, after they refused to drop the regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party from the government after the DMK was linked by an investigative panel to Sri Lankan separatists blamed for the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.[1] The outcome of the new elections was also indecisive, with no party or alliance able to create a strong majority. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Bihari Vajpayee regained his position of Prime Minister getting support from 286 members out of 545, the government collapsed again in late 1998 when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, with its 18 seats, withdrew their support, leading to new elections in 1999. It also marked the first time since independence that India's traditional governing party, the INC, failed to win two consecutive elections.

Turnout was 61.97%.

Results

Party Acronym Alliance % of votes Seats
Bharatiya Janata PartyBJPNDA25.59%182
Indian National CongressINCCongress25.82%141
Communist Party of India (Marxist)CPI(M)United Front5.4%32
Samajwadi PartySP4.93%20
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra KazhagamAIADMKNDA1.83%18
Rashtriya Janata DalRJDJan Morcha2.78%17
Telugu Desam PartyTDP2.77%12
Samata PartySAPNDA1.76%12
Communist Party of IndiaCPIUnited Front1.75%9
Biju Janata DalBJDNDA1%9
Shiromani Akali DalSADNDA0.81%8
All India Trinamool CongressWBTMCNDA2.42%7
Janata DalJDUnited Front3.24%6
Independents-2.37%6
Shiv SenaSSNDA1.77%6
Dravida Munnetra KazhagamDMKUnited Front1.44%6
Bahujan Samaj PartyBSPJan Morcha4.67%5
Revolutionary Socialist PartyRSPUnited Front0.55%5
Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya)HLD(R)0.53%4
Pattali Makkal KatchiPMKNDA0.42%4
Republican Party of IndiaRPI0.37%4
Tamil Maanila CongressTMC(M)United Front1.4%3
Lok ShaktiLSNDA0.69%3
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra KazhhagamMDMKNDA0.44%3
Jammu & Kashmir National ConferenceNC0.21%3
All India Forward BlocAIFBUnited Front0.33%2
Muslim League Kerala State CommitteeMULCongress0.22%2
Arunachal CongressAC0.05%2
Nominated Anglo-Indians--%2
All India Rashtriya Janata PartyAIRJPJan Morcha0.56%1
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)SJP(R)Jan Morcha0.32%1
Haryana Vikas PartyHVPNDA0.24%1
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul MuslimenAIMIM0.13%1
All India Indira Congress (Secular)AIIC(S)United Front0.12%1
Janata PartyJPNDA0.12%1
Kerala Congress (Mani)KCCongress0.1%1
United Minorities Front, AssamUMFA0.1%1
Peasants and Workers Party of IndiaPWPI0.07%1
Autonomous State Demand CommitteeASDC0.05%1
Manipur State Congress PartyMSCP0.05%1
Sikkim Democratic FrontSDF0.03%1
Jharkhand Mukti MorchaJMMJan Morcha0.36%0
Asom Gana ParishadAGPUnited Front0.29%0
Hill Peoples' Democratic PartyHPDP0.2%0
NTR Telugu Desam Party (Lakshmi Parvathi)NTRTDP(LP)NDA0.1%0
Kerala CongressKCUnited Front0.09%0
United Democratic PartyUDP0.06%0
United Goans Democratic PartyUGDP0.04%0
Manipur Peoples PartyMPP0.03%0
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak PartyMGP0.02%0
Mizo National FrontMNFNDA0.02%0
Total 100%545

Summary

Alliance % of votes Seats
National Democratic Alliance46.61%254
Congress & allies26.42%144
United Front11.74%64
Jan Morcha4.40%24
Others10.82%59
Total100%545

Results by state

States

(Please help expand this section with correct data) National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won the election. Its constituents were Bharatiya Janata Party, Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (AIADMK of Jayalalithaa) et al. Constituents of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) were Congress, Lalu Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP of Sharad Pawar), Kerala Muslim League, et al.

Andhra Pradesh (Total seats - 42) Congress - 22, Telugu Desam - 12, BJP - 4

Assam (Seats - 13) Congress - 10

Bihar (Total - 54) BJP (Part of NDA) - 19, Samata Party (Part of NDA) - 10, Rashtriya Janata Dal (Lalu Yadav) - 17, Congress - 4

Gujarat (Total seats - 26) Bharatiya Janata Party - 19, Congress - 7

Karnataka (Seats - 28) BJP - 13, Congress - 9

Madhya Pradesh (Seats in MP - 40) BJP - 30, Congress - 10

Maharashtra (Seats - 48) BJP - 4, Shiv Sena - 6, Congress (Part of UPA) - 31, RPI (Part of UPA) - 6,

Rajasthan (Total - 25) BJP - 5, Congress - 19

Tamil Nadu AIADMK (Part of NDA) - 18, BJP (NDA) - 3, DMK - 5, Tamil Manila Congress - 3

Uttar Pradesh (Seats in UP - 85) BJP - 58, Congress - Zero, Samajwadi Party (Mulayam Singh Yadav) - 19, BSP (Mayawati) - 4

West Bengal (Total - 42) CPI(M) - 24, CPI - 3, Trinamool Congress - 7, Congress - 1, BJP - 1

See also

References