1998 Indian general election in Orissa

General elections were held in India on 16, 22 and 28 February 1998 to elect the members of the twelfth Lok Sabha. The elections were held three years ahead of schedule after the government led by Inder Kumar Gujral collapsed when the Indian National Congress (INC) withdrew its support in November 1997. ^[1]

The result was another hung parliament, with no party or alliance able to muster a majority. However, Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party was able to form a coalition government led by the National Democratic Alliance with the outside support of the Telugu Desam Party. He was sworn in as Prime Minister with support from 272 of 543 MPs. However, his government collapsed on 17 April 1999 when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam withdrew its support, after Vajpayee refused to meet the demands of its leader J. Jayalalithaa, namely halting the corruption cases against her and the sacking of the Tamil Nadu government led by her bete-noire M. Karunanidhi. ^[2] This led to fresh elections in 1999. ^[3]

The elections were the second consecutive general elections in which the party that received the most votes did not win the most seats.

In Orissa, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was formed in 1998 after breaking away from the Janata Dal. In its debut in the 1998 general election, the BJD allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and won nine seats. Following this victory, Naveen Patnaik was appointed Union Minister for Mines. Together, the BJP–BJD alliance secured 16 out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the Janata Dal suffered a major defeat, with its vote share reduced to just 4 percent.

Seat sharing of parties

Party/Alliance				Flag	Electoral symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Indian National Congress					Giridhar Gamang	21
	National Democratic Alliance		Biju Janata Dal			Naveen Patnaik	12
			Bharatiya Janata Party			Atal Bihari Vajpayee	9

List of Candidates

Constituency		NDA			INC			JD+
No.	Name	Party		Candidate	Party		Candidate	Party		Candidate
1	Mayurbhanj (ST)		BJP	Salkhan Murmu		INC	Susila Tiria		JD	Chaitanya Prasad Majhi
2	Balasore		BJP	M. A. Kharabela Swain		INC	Kartik Mohapatra		JD	Dr. Ananta Majhi
3	Bhadrak (SC)		BJD	Arjun Charan Sethi		INC	Muralidhar Jena		JD	Bairagi Jena
4	Jajpur (SC)		BJD	Jagannath Mallik		INC	Rama Chandra Mallick		JD	Mohan Jena
5	Kendrapara		BJD	Prabhat Kumar Samantaray		INC	Archana Nayak		JD	Srikanta Kumar Jena
6	Cuttack		BJD	Bhartruhari Mahatab		INC	Syed Mustafiz Ahmed		JD	Ranendra Pratap Swain
7	Jagatsinghpur		BJD	Trilochan Kanungo		INC	Ranjib Biswal		CPI	Abani Boral
8	Puri		BJD	Braja Kishore Tripathy		INC	Pinaki Mishra		JD	Durga Charan Routray
9	Bhubaneswar		BJD	Prasanna Kumar Patasani		INC	Saumya Ranjan Pattanaik		CPI(M)	Shivaji Pattanaik
10	Aska		BJD	Naveen Patnaik		INC	Chandra Sekhar Sahoo		CPI	Nityananda Pradhan
11	Berhampur		BJP	Gopinath Gajapati Narayandeo		INC	Smt. Jayanti Patnaik		CPI(M)	Ali Kishore Pattanaik
12	Koraput (ST)		BJD	Jayaram Pangi		INC	Giridhar Gamang		JD	Sankar Bidika
13	Nowrangpur (ST)		BJP	Parsuram Majhi		INC	Khagapati Pradhani		JD	Bhagaban Majhi
14	Kalahandi		BJP	Bikram Keshari Deo		INC	Bhakta Charan Das		JD	Duryodhan Majhi
15	Phulbani (SC)		BJD	Padmanava Behera		INC	Mrutyunjaya Nayak		JD	Lecturer Bullion
16	Bolangir		BJP	Sangeeta Kumari Singhdeo		INC	Sarat Pattanayak		JD	Pradeep Kumar Maharana
17	Sambalpur		BJD	Prasanna Acharya		INC	Dr. Krupasindhu Bhoi		JD	Bijaya Singh Bariha
18	Deogarh		BJP	Debendra Pradhan		INC	Shriballav Panigrahi		JD	Rabi Narayan Pani
19	Dhenkanal		BJD	Tathagata Satapathy		INC	Kamakshya Prasad Singhdeo		JD	Sarat Kumar Mishra
20	Sundargarh (ST)		BJP	Jual Oram		INC	Sunil Kumar Singhdeo		Did not contest
21	Keonjhar (ST)		BJP	Upendranath Nayak		INC	Madhaba Sardar		JD	Saharai Oram

Election Voter Turnout

#	Constituency Name	Turnout
1	Mayurbhanj (ST)	65.25%
2	Balasore	66.62%
3	Bhadrak (SC)	60.80%
4	Jajpur (SC)	54.98%
5	Kendrapara	59.88%
6	Cuttack	56.95%
7	Jagatsinghpur	64.15%
8	Puri	61.80%
9	Bhubaneswar	53.20%
10	Aska	51.02%
11	Berhampur	50.76%
12	Koraput (ST)	47.34%
13	Nowrangpur (ST)	55.89%
14	Kalahandi	61.14%
15	Phulbani (SC)	56.22%
16	Bolangir	58.18%
17	Sambalpur	59.79%
18	Deogarh	59.80%
19	Dhenkanal	54.43%
20	Sundargarh (ST)	58.68%
21	Keonjhar (ST)	62.42%

Results by Party/Alliance

Alliance/ Party				Popular vote			Seats
				Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	NDA		BJD	36,69,825	27.50		12	9
			BJP	28,28,709	21.19	7.77	9	7	7
		Total		64,98,534	48.69		21	16
	INC			54,77,410	41.04	3.86	21	5	11
	JD+		JD	6,57,790	4.93	25.12	16	0	4
			CPI	1,32,089	0.99	0.65	2	0
			CPI(M)	54,217	0.41	1.28	2	0
		Total		8,44,096	6.33		20	0
	JMM			2,83,943	2.13	0.58	2	0
	Others			1,87,133	1.40		50	0
	IND			55,156	0.41	5.27	21	0
Total				1,33,46,272	100%	-	135	21	-

Source: ^{[4] [5]}

Detailed Results

Constituency		Winner					Runner-up					Margin
		Candidate	Party		Votes	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%	Votes	%
1	Mayurbhanj (ST)	Salkhan Murmu		BJP	2,49,255	42.09	Susila Tiria		INC	1,74,936	29.54	74,319	12.55
2	Balasore	M. A. Kharabela Swain		BJP	4,21,068	53.17	Kartik Mohapatra		INC	3,37,066	42.56	84,002	10.61
3	Bhadrak (SC)	Arjun Charan Sethi		BJD	3,50,322	49.99	Muralidhar Jena		INC	3,16,744	45.20	33,578	4.79
4	Jajpur (SC)	Rama Chandra Mallick		INC	2,83,455	45.72	Jagannath Mallik		BJD	1,91,591	30.90	91,864	14.82
5	Kendrapara	Prabhat Kumar Samantaray		BJD	2,82,736	43.27	Archana Nayak		INC	2,74,911	42.07	7,825	1.20
6	Cuttack	Bhartruhari Mahatab		BJD	3,50,314	52.89	Syed Mustafiz Ahmed		INC	2,37,620	35.87	1,12,694	17.02
7	Jagatsinghpur	Ranjib Biswal		INC	3,37,492	44.84	Trilochan Kanungo		BJD	3,17,563	42.19	19,929	2.65
8	Puri	Braja Kishore Tripathy		BJD	3,58,978	51.51	Pinaki Mishra		INC	3,06,433	43.97	52,545	7.54
9	Bhubaneswar	Prasamna Kumar Patasani		BJD	3,78,849	57.61	Saumya Ranjan Pattanaik		INC	2,50,941	38.16	1,27,908	19.45
10	Aska	Naveen Patnaik		BJD	3,10,751	53.89	Chandra Sekhar Sahoo		INC	2,24,540	38.94	86,211	14.95
11	Berhampur	Smt. Jayanti Patnaik		INC	2,71,044	49.05	Gopinath Gajapati Narayandeo		BJP	2,35,804	42.68	35,240	6.37
12	Koraput (ST)	Giridhar Gamang		INC	2,67,425	53.92	Jayaram Pangi		BJD	1,85,909	37.48	81,516	16.44
13	Nowrangpur (ST)	Khagapati Pradhani		INC	2,80,444	50.06	Parsuram Majhi		BJP	2,06,509	36.86	73,935	13.20
14	Kalahandi	Bikram Keshari Deo		BJP	3,44,703	56.55	Bhakta Charan Das		INC	2,24,789	36.88	1,19,914	19.67
15	Phulbani (SC)	Padmanava Behera		BJD	3,32,786	54.95	Mrutyunjaya Nayak		INC	2,41,714	39.91	91,072	15.04
16	Bolangir	Sangeeta Kumari Singhdeo		BJP	3,60,575	61.75	Sarat Pattanayak		INC	2,02,044	34.60	1,58,531	27.15
17	Sambalpur	Prasanna Acharya		BJD	3,10,870	45.77	Dr. Krupasindhu Bhoi		INC	2,86,102	42.12	24,768	3.65
18	Deogarh	Debendra Pradhan		BJP	3,46,820	52.34	Shriballav Panigrahi		INC	2,41,393	36.43	1,05,427	15.91
19	Dhenkanal	Tathagata Satapathy		BJD	2,99,156	51.02	Kamakshya Prasad Singhdeo		INC	2,66,645	45.48	32,511	5.54
20	Sundargarh (ST)	Jual Oram		BJP	3,16,069	47.71	Sunil Kumar Singhdeo		INC	1,90,041	28.69	1,26,028	19.02
21	Keonjhar (ST)	Upendranath Nayak		BJP	3,47,906	54.09	Madhaba Sardar		INC	2,61,631	40.68	86,275	13.41

Post-election Union Council of Ministers from Orissa

#	Name	Constituency	Designation	Department	From	To	Party
1	Naveen Patnaik [6]	Aska	Cabinet Minister	Steel	19 March 1998	13 Oct 1999		BJD
				Mines
2	Dilip Ray [7]	Rajya Sabha (Odisha)	MoS(I/C)	Coal	20 March 1998
			MoS	Parliamentary Affairs	22 May 1998

References

1. "Government Falls, Indian Premier Quits; Coalition Splits Amid Gandhi Assassination Debate". The Washington Post. 29 November 1997. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
2. "BJP's one-vote defeat in 1999 was narrowest in history". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
3. "The 1999 No-Trust Motion That Former PM Vajpayee Lost by One Vote". The Quint. 20 July 2018. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
4. https://old.eci.gov.in/files/file/4124-general-election-1998-vol-i-ii/
5. https://www.indiavotes.com/lok-sabha/1998/orissa/12/6#:~:text=IndiaVotes%20PC:%20Orissa%201998,NDA%20UPA%20THIRD%20FRONT%20OTHERS
6. "Shri Naveen Patnaik Assumes Charge as Union Minister for Steel & Mines". Press Information Bureau, Government of India (Archived).
7. "Ex-NDA Minister Dilip Ray Gets Three Years Imprisonment in Coal Scam Case". LiveLaw. Retrieved 2020-10-26.