Indian general election, 1991

Last updated

Indian general election, 1991
Flag of India.svg
  1989 20 May, 12 June, and 15 June 1991 [1] 1996  

All 545 seats in the Lok Sabha
273 seats were needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Pumapaparti.N.rao.jpg Lal Krishna Advani 2008-12-4.jpg V. P. Singh (cropped).jpg
Leader P.V. Narasimha Rao Lal Krishna Advani V.P. Singh
Party INC BJP Janata Dal
Alliance INC+ BJP+ NF
Leader's seat Nandyal New Delhi (vacated)
Gandhinagar
Fatehpur
Seats won24412069
Seat changeIncrease2.svg47Increase2.svg35Decrease2.svg74
Percentage35.66%20.04%11.77%
SwingDecrease2.svg3.87%Increase2.svg8.38%Decrease2.svg28.89%

Wahlergebnisse Indien 1991.svg
Lok Sabha 1991.svg

Prime Minister before election

Chandra Sekhar
SJP

Subsequent Prime Minister

P.V. Narasimha Rao
INC+

General elections were held in India in 1991 to elect the members of the 10th Lok Sabha. The result of the election was that no party could get a majority, so a minority government (Indian National Congress with the help of left parties) was formed, resulting in a stable government for the next 5 years, under the new Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

India Country in South Asia

India, also known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

List of Members of the 10th Lok Sabha, elected during Indian general election, 1991 held during May–June 1991. The Lok Sabha is the lower house in the Parliament of India.4 sitting members from Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament, were elected to 10th Lok Sabha after the Indian general election, 1991.

Indian National Congress Major political party in India

The Indian National Congress(pronunciation ) is a broadly based political party in India. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. Congress led India to independence from Great Britain, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.

Contents

Background

The 1991 Indian general election were held because the previous Lok Sabha had been dissolved just 16 months after government formation. The elections were held in a polarised environment and are also referred to as the 'Mandal-Mandir' elections after the two most important poll issues, the Mandal Commission fallout and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue.

The Mandal Commission, or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India on 1 January 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward classes" of India. It was headed by the late B.P. Mandal an Indian parliamentarian, to consider the question of reservations for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness. In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs identified on the basis of caste, economic and social indicators comprised 52% of India's population, the Commission's report recommended that members of Other Backward Classes (OBC) be granted reservations to 27% of jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings, thus making the total number of reservations for SC, ST and OBC to 49%.

Mandal-Mandir Issue

While the Mandal Commission report implemented by the VP Singh government gave 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in government jobs, it led to widespread violence and protests across the country by the forward castes. Mandir represented the hallmark of this election, where there was a debate over the disputed Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya, which the Bharatiya Janata Party was using as its major election manifesto.

Bharatiya Janata Party Major right-wing political party in India

The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress. As of 2018, it is the country's largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies, and it is the world's largest party in terms of primary membership. BJP is a right-wing party, and its policy has historically reflected Hindu nationalist positions. It has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Manifesto published declaration of principles and intentions of an individual or group

A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes the author believes should be made. It often is political or artistic in nature, but may present an individual's life stance. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds.

The Mandir issue led to numerous riots in many parts of the country and the electorate was polarised on caste and religious lines. With the National Front falling apart, the Congress managed to make the most of the polarisation, by getting the most seats and forming a minority government.

Rajiv Gandhi Assassination

A day after the first round of polling took place on 20 May, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning for Margatham Chandrasekar at Sriperembudur. The remaining election days were postponed until mid-June and voting finally took place on 12 and 15 June. Voting was the lowest ever in parliamentary elections with just 53 per cent of the electorate exercising their right to vote.

Sriperumbudur (Lok Sabha constituency) Lok Sabha Constituency in Tamil Nadu

Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha constituency is one of the largest parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

Since the assassination took place after first phase of polling in 211 of 534 constituencies and the balance constituencies went to polls after the assassination, the 1991 results varied greatly between phases. The congress party did poorly in the pre-assassination constituencies and swept the post-assassination constituencies. The end result was a minority Congress-led government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao, a politician who had announced his retirement from politics.

P. V. Narasimha Rao Indian politician

Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the 9th Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996. His ascendancy to the prime ministership was politically significant in that he was the first holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region, belonging to the southern part of India. He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India. Rao, who held the Industries portfolio, was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj, as this came under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. He is often referred to as the "Father of Indian Economic Reforms". Future prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh continued the economic reform policies pioneered by Rao's government. Rao accelerated the dismantling of the License Raj, reversing the socialist policies of Rajiv Gandhi's government. He employed Dr. Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister to embark on historic economic transition. With Rao's mandate, Dr. Manmohan Singh launched India's globalisation angle of the reforms that implemented the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse. Rao was also referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer tough economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government.

Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab

No elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, a total of 19 Lok Sabha seats. [2]

Emblem of India.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
India

Results

Lok Sabha elections 1991
Electoral participation: 55,71%. No elections held in Jammu and Kashmir. In Punjab elections were held in 1992.
%Won
(total 545)
Janata DalJD11.7769
Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M)6.1435
Communist Party of India CPI2.4814
Indian Congress (Socialist) IC(S)0.351
Indian National Congress INC35.66244
Bharatiya Janata Party BJP20.04120
Janata Dal (Secular) JD0,00
Janata Party JP3.345
Lok Dal LD0.060
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK1.6111
All India Forward Bloc AIFB0.413
Asom Gana Parishad AGP0.541
Bahujan Samaj Party BSP1.83
Indian Union Muslim League MUL0.32
Jammu & Kashmir Panthers Party JPP0,00
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha JMM0.536
Kerala Congress (Mani) KC(M)0.141
Manipur Peoples Party MPP0.061
Nagaland Peoples Council NPC0.121
Revolutionary Socialist Party RSP0.635
Shiv Sena SS0.794
Sikkim Sangram Parishad SSP0.041
Telugu Desam Party TDP2.9613
United Minorities Front, Assam UMFA0.071
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimen AIMIM0.161
Autonomous State Demand Committee ASDC0.51
Haryana Vikas Party HVP0.121
Janata Dal (Gujarat) JD(G)0.51
Independents-4.011
Nominated Anglo-Indians --2

Premiership

The 10th Lok Sabha constituted. Congress was in a position to form government. The persons, mentioned in media, as probable Prime Minister, were: [3]

Congress eventually formed the government under the Prime Ministership of P. V. Narasimha Rao. After Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rao was the second Congress Prime Minister from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family and the first Congress Prime Minister to head a minority government that completed full 5 year term. [5] He introduced Economic reforms in India.

See also

Related Research Articles

L. K. Advani politician

Lal Krishna Advani is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Advani also served as Minister of Home Affairs in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government from 1998 to 2004. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the 10th Lok Sabha and 14th Lok Sabha. He was the National Democratic Alliance prime ministerial candidate in the 2009 general elections.

H. D. Deve Gowda Indian politician

Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda is an Indian politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996.

Uma Bharti Indian politician

Uma Bharti is an Indian politician who currently serves as the Cabinet Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation in the Union Government of India and was Appointed National Vice President of Bharatiya Janata Party in March 2019. She became involved with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a young age, unsuccessfully contesting her first parliamentary elections in 1984. In 1989, she successfully contested the Khajuraho seat, and retained it in elections conducted in 1991, 1996 and 1998. In 1999, she switched constituencies and won the Bhopal seat.

Sharad Pawar Indian politician

Sharad Govindrao Pawar is an Indian politician who serves as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on three separate occasions and held the posts of Minister of Defence and Minister of Agriculture in the Government of India. Pawar hails from the town of Baramati in the Pune district of Maharashtra. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha where he leads the NCP delegation. He holds a position of prominence in national politics as well as the regional politics of Maharashtra.

2004 Indian general election

Legislative 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. The Lok Sabha, or "House of the People," is the directly elected lower house of the Parliament of India.

The Liberhan Commission was a long-running inquiry commissioned by the Government of India to investigate the destruction of the disputed structure Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. Led by retired High Court Judge M. S. Liberhan, it was formed on 16 December 1992 by an order of the Indian Home Union Ministry after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December and the subsequent riots there. The Commission was originally mandated to submit its report within three months. Extensions were given 48 times, and after a delay of 17 years, the one-man commission submitted the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 30 June 2009. In November 2009, a day after a newspaper published the allegedly leaked contents of the report, the report was tabled in Parliament by the Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Sitaram Kesri was an Indian politician and parliamentarian. He became a union minister and served as President of the Indian National Congress from 1996 to 1998.

Kalyan Singh Indian politician

Kalyan Singh is the current Governor of Rajasthan since 4 September 2014. He took additional charge of Himachal Pradesh replacing Urmila Singh, whose five-year term ended on 24 January 2015. Prior to that, he was an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Kalyan Singh was born to Tejpal Singh Lodhi and Sita on 5 January 1932. He has served two terms as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and was appointed Governor of Rajasthan on 26 August 2014. Kalyan Singh is known for his role in the Babri Masjid demolition. Addressing reporters in Etah, Kalyan Singh once said that he owns full responsibility for the demolition of the 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya on 6 December 1992, thus reigniting the controversial Ram Janmabhoomi dispute. During a speech at the 26th convocation ceremony, he appealed against the word ‘Adhinayak’, saying it should be replaced by 'Mangal'.

2009 Indian general election general election in India

India held general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009. With an electorate of 714 million, it was the largest democratic election in the world till the Indian General Elections 2014 held from 7 April 2014.

1951–52 Indian general election

The Indian general election of 1951–52, held from 25 October 1951 to 21 February 1952, was the first election to the Lok Sabha since India became independent in August 1947. It was conducted under the provisions of the Indian Constitution, which was adopted on 26 November 1949. Elections to most of the state legislatures took place simultaneously.

1989 Indian general election

General elections were held in India in 1989 to elect the members of the 9th Lok Sabha. V. P. Singh united the entire disparate spectrum of parties including regional parties such as the Telugu Desam Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Asom Gana Parishad, forming the National Front with N.T.Rama Rao as President and V. P. Singh as convenor with additional outside support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left front they defeated Rajiv Gandhi's Congress (I) in the 1989 parliamentary elections.

1990s in India

The 1990s was a historic decade in India. Economic growth rates increased as policies were liberalised though not as quickly as in China. Urbanisation was also very slow compared to that in China. Rate of growth of population and fertility rates decreased. Infant mortality rates saw good rate of decrease. Two polarising trends emerged in national politics - that of the politics of social justice based on caste which followed the implementation of Mandal commission report, and of the politics of religion based on Hindu nationalism, which was marked by demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the subsequent communal riots.

Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 48 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in the state of Maharashtra in western India. The constituency did not exist during the Indian general elections of 1951-52 for the 1st Lok Sabha. It was created for Indian general election, 1957 for the 2nd Lok Sabha, with abolition of the Amravati West constituency in the neighbouring Amravati district.

Jalna Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 48 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Maharashtra state in western India.

1991 Indian general election in Tamil Nadu

The Indian general election, 1991 polls in Tamil Nadu were held for 39 seats in the state. The result was a repeat landslide victory for Indian National Congress, and its ally Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, winning all 39 seats. The opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which was part of the National Front, lost heavily, not winning a single seat. During this election, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, when campaigning for Margatham Chandrasekar for the Indian National Congress, in the Sriperumbudur constituency.

Chandra Shekhar Indian politician

Chandra Shekhar was an Indian politician who, served as the eleventh Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress as a stop gap arrangement to delay elections.Chandrasekhar is the first Indian Prime Minister who has never held any Government office. His government was largely seen as a "puppet" and "lame duck" and the government was formed with the fewest party MPs in the Lok Sabha of the Congress. His government could not pass the budget at a crucial time when Moody had downgraded India and it further went down after the budget was not passed and global credit-rating agencies further downgraded India from investment grade making it impossible to even get short term loans and in no position to give any commitment to reform the World Bank and IMF stopped their assistance. Chandrasekhar had to authorise mortgaging of gold to avoid default of payment and this action came in for particular criticism as it was done secretly in the midst of the election. The Indian economic crisis, 1991, and the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi plunged his government into crisis.

2019 Indian general election Elections for the 17th Lok Sabha

The 2019 Indian general election is scheduled to be held in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The counting of votes will be conducted on 23 May, and on the same day the results will be declared.

In June 1992 a by-election was held for the New Delhi seat in the Lok Sabha. The by-election was called after the resignation of the incumbent Member of Parliament L.K. Advani.

Kamala Kumari Kareddula is an Indian politician. She was elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India from the Bhadrachalam, Andhra Pradesh as a member of the Indian National Congress.

References

  1. http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2145_91.htm
  2. "ONCE UPON A POLL: Tenth Lok Sabha Elections (1991)". The Indian Express. 2014-03-21. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Rao, Pawar in race for CPP-I leadership". The Indian Express . Madras. June 18, 1991. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  4. "A meeting of hearts". The Indian Express . Madras. June 15, 1991. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  5. "How Shukla saved Rao govt in 1992 - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 April 2018.