Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician, statesman and poet who served as the Prime Minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 to 1999, followed by a full term from 1999 to 2004. He was the first non-Congress prime minister to serve a full term in the office. Vajpayee was one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a member of the RSS, a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation. He was also a Hindi poet and a writer.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
Sonia Gandhi is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. She took over as the party leader in 1998, seven years after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her husband and a former Prime Minister of India, and remained in office until 2017 after serving for twenty-two years. She returned to the post in 2019 and remained the President for another three years.
The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the state parties in India. It refers to the Ajit Pawar faction after the 2023 split in the party when the Supreme Court of India granted the original party name and symbol to the Nationalist Congress Party. It was one of the major political parties in Maharashtra and was a recognised state party in Nagaland and Kerala. In July 2023, majority of the elected MLAs and MLCs of the party led by Ajit Pawar joined the National Democratic Alliance government, however, all MPs except two remained loyal to Sharad Pawar. This caused a direct split between the Ajit Pawar-led faction and the founder and president Sharad Pawar who formed the Nationalist Congress Party after EC recognised the Ajit Pawar faction as the original party.
The National Democratic Alliance is an Indian big tent multi-party political alliance, led by country's biggest political party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded on 15 May 1998 and currently controls the government of India as well as the government of 19 Indian states and one Union territory.
General elections were held in India in four phases between 20 April and 10 May 2004. Over 670 million people were eligible to vote, electing 543 members of the 14th Lok Sabha. Seven states also held assembly elections to elect state governments. They were the first elections fully carried out with electronic voting machines.
The 13th Lok Sabha is the thirteenth session of the Lok Sabha. It was convened after 1999 Indian general election held during September–October 1999.
The 12th Lok Sabha, was constituted after the 1998 Indian general election held during February–March 1998. This was the second consecutive Lok Sabha, like the 11th Lok Sabha elections that did not provide the country with a stable government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the 10th Prime Minister of India but the government lasted for only about thirteen months due to no clear mandate. Also, the party was not able to get support from other parties, after the withdrawal of support by AIADMK. After his resignation, then President K. R. Narayanan asked Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha to form the government; however, Gandhi responded that the UPA would not be able to form a government at the center, following which President Narayanan dissolved the House. The next General elections of 1999 for 13th Lok Sabha provided India a stable government that lasted for full five years. Nine sitting members from Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament, were elected to 12th Lok Sabha after the 1998 Indian general election.
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.
General elections were held in India in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009 to elect the members of the fifteenth Lok Sabha. With an electorate of 716 million, it was the largest democratic election in the world until being surpassed by the 2014 general election.
General elections were held in India on 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 to elect the members of the eleventh Lok Sabha.
General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 election. Around 23.1 million or 2.71% of the total eligible voters were aged 18–19 years. A total of 8,251 candidates contested the 543 elected Lok Sabha seats. The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.40%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections until 2019 election.
The 1998 Indian general election polls in Tamil Nadu were held for 39 seats in the state. 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 result was a landslide victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 30 seats, which helped result in Atal Bihari Vajpayee being sworn in as the 16th Prime Minister of India. J. Jayalalithaa and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, broke off from their long alliance with Indian National Congress and formed an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party, by joining the National Democratic Alliance. This state proved to be very important in determining the prime minister, since the 18 seats of AIADMK proved valuable for BJP to hold power. That was short-lived, since the AIADMK left the alliance in less than a year, and BJP lost the vote of confidence resulting in fresh elections being called.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician who served thrice as Prime Minister of India, first from 16 May to 1 June 1996, and then from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vajpayee was the tenth Prime Minister. He headed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the Indian Parliament, and became the first Prime Minister unaffiliated with the Indian National Congress to complete a full five-year term in office. He died at the age of 93 on Thursday 16 August 2018 at 17:05 at AIIMS, New Delhi.
The 2019 Indian general election was held in Kerala on 23 April 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha.
To constitute India's 17th Lok Sabha, general elections were held in April–May 2019. The results were announced on 23 May 2019. The main contenders were two alliance groups of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition United Progressive Alliance led by the Indian National Congress. The 2019 Indian general election was the largest democratic exercise in history at the time it was conducted, with around 912 million eligible voters.
The 2004 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh were held between 26 April and 10 May 2004 for the 14th Lok Sabha. The election results were declared on 13 May in which the national parties the BJP and the Congress performed quite badly while the state parties, SP and BSP did very well and fetched majority of the seats. Early polls called by the BJP proved disastrous for the party, although Congress managed to win and form the government at the national level.
The AIADMK-led Alliance is an Indian regional political party alliance in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry led by the Dravidian party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam founded by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu M. G. Ramachandran (M.G.R.).
The results of India's general elections to constitute 18th Lok Sabha, held in April–June 2024 were announced on 4th and 5th June 2024. The main contenders were two alliance groups of the Incumbent National Democratic Alliance (N.D.A) led by Bharatiya Janata Party; and the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) led by Indian National Congress. In the legislative house of 543 seats, the incumbent NDA alliance secured majority with 293 seats, which included BJP party's 240 seats, while the opposition INDIA coalition got 234 seats, including Congress party's 99 seats. On June 9, 2024, Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister, having been elected the leader of the NDA alliance, though BJP lost its majority.
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