1999 Indian general election in Bihar

Indian general election in Bihar, 1999

← 1998 18 September–3 October 2004 (Jharkhand) → 2004 (Bihar)  →
54 seats
Turnout	61.48%
First party Second party   Leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee Nitish Kumar Party BJP JD(U) Alliance NDA NDA Last election 20 Did not exist Seats won 23 18 Seat change 3 18 Popular vote 82,04,850 74,05,701 Percentage 23.01% 20.77% Swing 1.02% New   Third party Fourth party   Leader Lalu Prasad Yadav Sonia Gandhi Party RJD INC Alliance INC+ INC+ Last election 17 5 Seats won 7 4 Seat change 10 1 Popular vote 1,00,85,302 31,42,603 Percentage 28.29% 8.81% Swing 1.71% 1.54%
Bihar
Prime Minister before election Atal Bihari Vajpayee BJP Prime Minister after election Atal Bihari Vajpayee BJP

The 1999 Indian general election in Bihar were held for 54 seats with the state going to polls in the last three phases of the general elections. The major contenders in the state were the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Congress led alliance. ^[1] NDA, an alliance formed in last election, consisted of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) whereas the Congress led alliance was constituted of the Indian National Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), Communist Party of India and the Marxist Co-ordination Committee.

The results indicated the complete reversal of the last election, NDA secured landslide victory winning 41 out of 54 seats. ^[2] Bihar emerged as most successful state for NDA, winning most seats in any state, leading to their huge victory under Vajpayee in the election.

The results were huge setbacks for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) limiting their seats to just 7, even RJD Supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav lost his election from Madhepura constituency to Sharad Yadav of Janata Dal (United) in close fight by 30320 votes. ^[3]

Election schedule

The polling schedule for the 1999 General Elections was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner on 11 July 1999.

Poll event	Phase
	III	IV	V
Notification date	21 August	30 August	07 September
Last date for filing nomination	28 August	06 September	14 September
Scrutiny of nomination	30 August	07 September	15 September
Last Date for withdrawal of nomination	01 September	09 September	17 September
Date of poll	18 September	25 September	03 October
Date of counting of votes/Result	6 October 1999

Voting Phases
III (19 seats)	IV (19 seats)	V (16 seats)
Dumka Godda Sasaram Bikramganj Aurangabad Jahanabad Nawada Gaya Chatra Kodaram Giridh Dhanbad Hazaribagh Ranchi Jamshedpur Singbhum Khunti Lohardagav Palamau	Bagaha Bettiah Motihari Gopalganj Siwan Maharajganj Chapra Hajipur Vaishali Muzaffarpur Darbhanga Barh Balia Munger Begusarai Nalanda Patna Arrah Buxar	Sitamarhi Sheohar Madhubani Jhanjharpur Rosera Samastipur Saharsa Madhepura Araria Kishanganj Purnia Katihar Banka Bhagalpur Khagaria Rajmahal

Parties and alliances

   National Democratic Alliance

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Bharatiya Janata Party			Nand Kishore Yadav	29
	Janata Dal (United)			Sharad Yadav	23
	Bihar People's Party			Anand Mohan Singh	2

   Congress Alliance

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Rashtriya Janata Dal			Lalu Prasad Yadav	35 + 1 [a]
	Indian National Congress			Sadanand Singh	15 + 1 [b]
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)			Subodh Roy	2
	Marxist Co-ordination Committee			A. K. Roy	1
	Communist Party of India			Indrajit Gupta	1 + 8 [c]

Candidates

Constituency
		NDA			UPA
1	Bagaha (SC)		JD(U)	Mahendra Baitha		RJD	Purnmasi Ram
2	Bettiah		BJP	Madan Prasad Jaiswal		RJD	Mataour Rahman
						CPI	Triveni Tiwari
3	Motihari		BJP	Radha Mohan Singh		RJD	Rama Devi
4	Gopalganj		JD(U)	Raghunath Jha		RJD	Kali Prasad Pandey
5	Siwan		JD(U)	Akhlaq Ahmed		RJD	Mohammad Shahabuddin
6	Maharajganj		JD(U)	Prabhunath Singh		INC	Mahachandra Prasad Singh
7	Chapra		BJP	Rajiv Pratap Rudy		RJD	Hira Lal Rai
8	Hajipur (SC)		JD(U)	Ram Vilas Paswan		RJD	Ramai Ram
9	Vaishali		BPP	Lovely Anand		RJD	Raghuvansh Prasad Singh
10	Muzaffarpur		JD(U)	Jai Narain Prasad Nishad		RJD	Mahendra Sahni
11	Sitamarhi		JD(U)	Nawal Kishore Rai		RJD	Suryadeo Rai
12	Sheohar		BPP	Anand Mohan Singh		RJD	Md Anwarul Haque
13	Madhubani		BJP	Hukmdev Narayan Yadav		INC	Shakeel Ahmad
						CPI	Bhogendra Jha
14	Jhanjharpur		JD(U)	Devendra Prasad Yadav		RJD	Surendra Prasad Yadav
15	Darbhanga		BJP	Kirti Azad		RJD	Mohammad Ali Ashraf Fatmi
16	Rosera (SC)		JD(U)	Ram Chandra Paswan		RJD	Pitambar Paswan
17	Samastipur		JD(U)	Manjay Lal		RJD	Ashok Singh
18	Barh		JD(U)	Nitish Kumar		RJD	Vijay Krishna
19	Balia		JD(U)	Ramjivan Singh		RJD	Ashok Kumar
						CPI	Shatrughan Prasad Singh
20	Saharsa		JD(U)	Dinesh Chandra Yadav		RJD	Surya Narayan Yadav
21	Madhepura		JD(U)	Sharad Yadav		RJD	Lalu Prasad
22	Araria (SC)		BJP	Parmanand Rishidev		RJD	Sukdeo Paswan
23	Kishanganj		BJP	Syed Shahnawaz Hussain		RJD	Taslimuddin
24	Purnea		BJP	Jai Krishna Mandal		CPI(M)	Abdul Khalil Ahmad
25	Katihar		BJP	Nikhil Kumar Choudhary		INC	Mubarak Hussain
26	Rajmahal (ST)		BJP	Som Marandi		INC	Thomas Hansda
27	Dumka (ST)		BJP	Babu Lal Marandi		INC	Ramesh Hembram
28	Godda		BJP	Jagadambi Prasad Yadav		RJD	Javed Iqbal Ansari
						INC	Furqan Ansari
						CPI	Sanjay Kumar
29	Banka		JD(U)	Digvijay Singh		RJD	Shakuni Choudhary
30	Bhagalpur		BJP	Prabhas Chandra Tiwari		CPI(M)	Subodh Ray
31	Khagaria		JD(U)	Renu Kumari		RJD	Nayana Rana
						CPI	Satyanarayan Singh
32	Monghyr		JD(U)	Brahmanand Mandal		RJD	Bijoy Kumar Bijoy
33	Begusarai		JD(U)	Shyam Sundar Singh		INC	Rajo Singh
34	Nalanda		JD(U)	George Fernandes		CPI	Gaya Singh
35	Patna		BJP	C P Thakur		RJD	Ram Kripal Yadav
36	Arrah		JD(U)	H P Singh		RJD	Ram Prasad Kushwaha
37	Buxar		BJP	Lalmuni Chaubey		RJD	Shivanand Tiwary
						CPI	Tej Narayan Singh
38	Sasaram (SC)		BJP	Muni Lall		RJD	Ram Keshi Bharati
39	Bikramganj		JD(U)	Vashisht Narayan Singh		RJD	Kanti Singh
40	Aurangabad		JD(U)	Sushil Kumar Singh		INC	Shyama Singh
41	Jahanabad		JD(U)	Arun Kumar		RJD	Surendra Prasad Yadav
42	Nawada (SC)		BJP	Sanjay Paswan		RJD	Vijay Kumar Chaudhary
43	Gaya (SC)		BJP	Ramji Manjhi		RJD	Rajesh Kumar
44	Chatra		BJP	Dhirendra Agarwal		RJD	Nagmani
45	Kodarma		BJP	Rati Lal Prasad Verma		INC	Tilakdhari Singh
46	Giridih		BJP	Ravindra Kumar Pandey		INC	Rajendra Prasad Singh
47	Dhanbad		BJP	Rita Verma		MCC	A. K. Roy
48	Hazaribagh		BJP	Yashwant Sinha		RJD	Aklu Ram Mahto
						INC	Ishwari Ram Paswan
						CPI	Ramendra Kumar
49	Ranchi		BJP	Ram Tahal Choudhary		INC	K. K. Tewary
50	Jamshedpur		BJP	Abha Mahato		INC	Ghanashyam Mahato
						CPI	Dulal Munshi
51	Singhbhum (ST)		BJP	Laxman Gilua		INC	Vijay Singh Soy
52	Khunti (ST)		BJP	Kariya Munda		INC	Sushila Kerketta
53	Lohardaga (ST)		BJP	Dukha Bhagat		INC	Indra Nath Bhagat
54	Palamu (SC)		BJP	Braj Mohan Ram		RJD	Jorawar Ram

Voting and results

Party wise

Alliance/Party				Seats			Popular Vote
				Contested	Won	+/-	Votes	%	+/-
	NDA		Bharatiya Janata Party	29	23	3	82,04,850	23.01	1.02
			Janata Dal (United)	23	18	New	74,05,701	20.77	New
	UPA		Rashtriya Janata Dal	36	7	10	1,00,85,302	28.29	1.71
			Indian National Congress	16	4	1	31,42,603	8.81	1.54
			Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	2	1	1	3,50,958	0.98	0.58
			Communist Party of India	9	0		9,59,705	2.69	0.71
			Marxist Co-ordination Committee	1	0		3,51,839	0.99	0.28
-	-		Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation	23	0		8,79,081	2.47	0.35
-	-		Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	13	0		7,27,510	2.04	0.41
-	-		Nationalist Congress Party	19	0	New	4,76,004	1.34	New
-	-		Independents (politician)	187	1	1	14,82,483	4.16	2.19

Constituency wise

Parliamentary Constituency			Name of elected M.P.	Party affiliation
No.	Name	Type
1	Bagaha	SC	Mahendra Baitha		Janata Dal (United)
2	Bettiah	GEN	Madan Prasad Jaiswal		Bharatiya Janata Party
3	Motihari	GEN	Radha Mohan Singh
4	Gopalganj	GEN	Raghunath Jha		Janata Dal (United)
5	Siwan	GEN	Mohammad Shahabuddin		Rashtriya Janata Dal
6	Maharajganj	GEN	Prabhunath Singh		Janata Dal (United)
7	Chapra	GEN	Rajiv Pratap Rudi		Bharatiya Janata Party
8	Hajipur	SC	Ram Vilas Paswan		Janata Dal
9	Vaishali	GEN	Raghubansh Prasad Singh		Rashtriya Janata Dal
10	Muzaffarpur	GEN	Jai Narain Prasad Nishad		Janata Dal (United)
11	Sitamarhi	GEN	Nawal Kishore Rai
12	Sheohar	GEN	Md Anwarul Haque		Rashtriya Janata Dal
13	Madhubani	GEN	Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav		Bharatiya Janata Party
14	Jhanjharpur	GEN	Devendra Prasad Yadav		Janata Dal (United)
15	Darbhanga	GEN	Kirti Azad		Bharatiya Janata Party
16	Rosera	SC	Ram Chandra Paswan		Janata Dal (United)
17	Samastipur	GEN	Manjay Lal
18	Barh	GEN	Nitish Kumar
19	Balia	GEN	Ram Jeevan Singh
20	Saharsa	GEN	Dinesh Chandra Yadav
21	Madhepura	GEN	Sharad Yadav
22	Araria	SC	Sukdeo Paswan		Rashtriya Janata Dal
23	Kishanganj	GEN	Syed Shahnawaz Hussain		Bharatiya Janata Party
24	Purnea	GEN	Rajesh Ranjan		Independent
25	Katihar	GEN	Nikhil Kumar Choudhary		Bharatiya Janata Party
26	Rajmahal	ST	Thomas Hansda		Indian National Congress
27	Dumka	ST	Babulal Marandi		Bharatiya Janata Party
28	Godda	GEN	Jagdambi Prasad Yadav
29	Banka	GEN	Digvijay Singh		Janata Dal (United)
30	Bhagalpur	GEN	Subodh Roy		Communist Party of India (Marxist)
31	Khagaria	GEN	Renu Kumari		Janata Dal (United)
32	Monghyr	GEN	Brahmanand Mandal
33	Begusarai	GEN	Rajo Singh		Indian National Congress
34	Nalanda	GEN	George Fernandes		Janata Dal (United)
35	Patna	GEN	C P Thakur		Bharatiya Janata Party
36	Arrah	GEN	Ram Prasad Singh		Rashtriya Janata Dal
37	Buxar	GEN	Lalmuni Chaubey		Bharatiya Janata Party
38	Sasaram	SC	Muni Lall
39	Bikramganj	GEN	Kanti Singh		Rashtriya Janata Dal
40	Aurangabad	GEN	Shyama Singh		Indian National Congress
41	Jahanabad	GEN	Arun Kumar		Janata Dal (United)
42	Nawada	SC	Sanjay Paswan		Bharatiya Janata Party
43	Gaya	SC	Ramji Manjhi
44	Chatra	GEN	Nagmani		Rashtriya Janata Dal
45	Kodarma	GEN	Tilakdhari Singh		Indian National Congress
46	Giridh	GEN	Ravindra Kumar Pandey		Bharatiya Janata Party
47	Dhanbad	GEN	Rita Verma
48	Hazaribagh	GEN	Yashwant Sinha
49	Ranchi	GEN	Ram Tahal Choudhary
50	Jamshedpur	GEN	Abha Mahato
51	Singbhum	ST	Laxman Giluwa
52	Khunti	ST	Kariya Munda
53	Lohardagav	ST	Dukha Bhagat
54	Palamau	SC	Braj Mohan Ram

Assembly Segment wise lead

Party		Assembly segments	Position in Assembly (as of 2000 election)
	Bharatiya Janata Party	107	67
	Janata Dal (United)	89	21
	Rashtriya Janata Dal	70	124
	Indian National Congress	23	23
	Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	6	12
	Communist Party of India	5	5
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	4	2
	Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation	3	6
	Marxist Co-ordination Committee	3	1
	Bihar People's Party	3	0
	Nationalist Congress Party	2	0
	Others	9	63
Total		324

References

1. "IndiaVotes | India's largest election database".
2. "With Modi becoming BJP's darling, will JDU's Nitish Kumar leave alliance?". 30 November 1999.
3. "Madhepura: Twice beaten by Lalu, Sharad now RJD nominee".

Notes

1. Friendly Contest on Godda and Hazaribagh between INC and RJD.
2. Friendly Contest on Godda and Hazaribagh between INC and RJD.
3. CPI Contested only Nalanda constituency under the alliance of INC and RJD.