Indian general election, 1998

Indian general election, 1998

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 Third party   Leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sitaram Kesri I. K. Gujral Party BJP INC Janata Dal Alliance NDA INC+ UF Leader's seat Lucknow Bihar (Rajya Sabha) Bihar (Rajya Sabha) Seats won 254 144 64 Seat change 25 1 128 Popular vote 139,701,871 98,140,471 Percentage 37.21% 26.14% 11.74% Swing 16.92% 2.66% 17.26%
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. 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 Party	BJP	NDA	25.59%	182
Indian National Congress	INC	Congress	25.82%	141
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPI(M)	United Front	5.4%	32
Samajwadi Party	SP		4.93%	20
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	AIADMK	NDA	1.83%	18
Rashtriya Janata Dal	RJD	Jan Morcha	2.78%	17
Telugu Desam Party	TDP		2.77%	12
Samata Party	SAP	NDA	1.76%	12
Communist Party of India	CPI	United Front	1.75%	9
Biju Janata Dal	BJD	NDA	1%	9
Shiromani Akali Dal	SAD	NDA	0.81%	8
West Bengal Trinamool Congress	WBTC	NDA	2.42%	7
Janata Dal	JD	United Front	3.24%	6
Independents	-		2.37%	6
Shiv Sena	SS	NDA	1.77%	6
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	DMK	United Front	1.44%	6
Bahujan Samaj Party	BSP	Jan Morcha	4.67%	5
Revolutionary Socialist Party	RSP	United Front	0.55%	5
Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya)	HLD(R)		0.53%	4
Pattali Makkal Katchi	PMK	NDA	0.42%	4
Republican Party of India	RPI		0.37%	4
Tamil Maanila Congress	TMC(M)	United Front	1.4%	3
Lok Shakti	LS	NDA	0.69%	3
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhhagam	MDMK	NDA	0.44%	3
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference	NC		0.21%	3
All India Forward Bloc	AIFB	United Front	0.33%	2
Muslim League Kerala State Committee	MUL	Congress	0.22%	2
Arunachal Congress	AC		0.05%	2
Nominated Anglo-Indians	-		-%	2
All India Rashtriya Janata Party	AIRJP	Jan Morcha	0.56%	1
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	SJP(R)	Jan Morcha	0.32%	1
Haryana Vikas Party	HVP	NDA	0.24%	1
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimen	AIMIM		0.13%	1
All India Indira Congress (Secular)	AIIC(S)	United Front	0.12%	1
Janata Party	JP	NDA	0.12%	1
Kerala Congress (Mani)	KC	Congress	0.1%	1
United Minorities Front, Assam	UMFA		0.1%	1
Peasants and Workers Party of India	PWPI		0.07%	1
Autonomous State Demand Committee	ASDC		0.05%	1
Manipur State Congress Party	MSCP		0.05%	1
Sikkim Democratic Front	SDF		0.03%	1
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	JMM	Jan Morcha	0.36%	0
Asom Gana Parishad	AGP	United Front	0.29%	0
Hill Peoples' Democratic Party	HPDP		0.2%	0
NTR Telugu Desam Party (Lakshmi Parvathi)	NTRTDP(LP)	NDA	0.1%	0
Kerala Congress	KC	United Front	0.09%	0
United Democratic Party	UDP		0.06%	0
United Goans Democratic Party	UGDP		0.04%	0
Manipur Peoples Party	MPP		0.03%	0
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party	MGP		0.02%	0
Mizo National Front	MNF	NDA	0.02%	0
Total			100%	545

Summary

Alliance	% of votes	Seats
National Democratic Alliance	46.61%	254
Congress & allies	26.42%	144
United Front	11.74%	64
Jan Morcha	4.40%	24
Others	10.82%	59
Total	100%	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, FB - 2, RSP - 4, Trinamool Congress - 7 Congress - 1, BJP - 1

See also

• State Assembly elections in India, 1998
• Election Commission of India
• Indian presidential election, 1997