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General Elections were held in India from 5 September to 3 October 1999, a few months after the Kargil War. The 13th Lok Sabha election is of historical importance as it was the first time a united front of parties managed to attain a majority and form a government that lasted a full term of five years, thus ending a period of political instability at the national level that had been characterised by three general elections held in as many years.
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.
The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LOC). In India, the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay which was the name of the Indian operation to clear the Kargil sector.
The 13th Lok Sabha is the thirteenth session of the Lok Sabha. It was convened after Indian general election, 1999 held during September–October 1999.
On 17 April 1999, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) coalition government led by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee failed to win a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha (India's lower house)by a single vote due to the withdrawal of one of the government's coalition partners – the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The leader of the AIADMK, J. Jayalalitha, had consistently threatened to withdraw support from the ruling coalition if certain demands were not met, in particular the sacking of the Tamil Nadu government, control of which she had lost three years prior. The BJP accused Jayalalitha of making the demands in order to avoid standing trial for a series of corruption charges, and no agreement between the parties could be reached leading to the government's defeat. [1]
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).
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian statesman who served three terms 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, and finally, for a full term from 1999 to 2004. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he was the first Indian prime minister who was not a member of the Indian National Congress party to have served a full five-year term in office.
The Lok Sabha is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, and they hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the President on the advice of the council of ministers. The house meets in the Lok Sabha Chambers of the Sansad Bhavan in New Delhi.
Sonia Gandhi, as leader of the opposition and largest opposition party (Indian National Congress) was unable to form a coalition of parties large enough to secure a working majority in the Lok Sabha. Thus shortly after the no confidence motion, President K. R. Narayanan dissolved the Parliament and called fresh elections. Atal Bihari Vajpayee remained caretaker prime minister till the elections were held later that year. [2]
Sonia Gandhi
The Indian National Congress(
The President of India is the ceremonial head of state of India and the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces.
The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went into the election as the head of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of over 20 parties. Several other parties in the election not part of the NDA also committed themselves to supporting a BJP led government on matters of confidence. The main opposition league was led by Sonia Gandhi's Indian National Congress, the long-traditional center-left dominant party in India. The opposition coalition comprised far fewer parties, and its alliances were generally weaker than those of the NDA. A so-called "third front" of left-wing, socialist and communist parties was also present, although this was not a strong electoral alliance so much as a loose grouping of parties that shared similar ideological viewpoints and had some inter-party co-operation. There were also nearly one thousand candidates of unaffiliated parties, independent candidates and parties who were unwilling to take part in coalitions that stood in the election. [3]
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a coalition of Progressive centre-right to right-wing political parties in India. At the time of its formation in 1998, it was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and had 13 constituent parties. Its chairman was late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Also representing the alliance are L. K. Advani, former Deputy Prime Minister, who is the acting chairman of the Alliance, Narendra Modi, current Prime Minister and the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha; and Arun Jaitley, Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha and Finance minister. The coalition ruled from 1998 to 2004. The alliance returned to power in the 2014 General election with a combined vote share of 38.5%. Its leader, Narendra Modi, was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014.
The campaign coalesced around a few key issues. Sonia Gandhi was a relative newcomer to the INC (having been elected to the presidency in 1998) and her leadership had recently been challenged by Maharastrian INC leader Sharad Pawar, on the grounds of her Italian birth. This led to an underlying crisis within the INC that persisted during the election and was capitalised upon by the BJP, which contrasted the "videsi" (foreign) Gandhi versus the "swadesi" (home-grown) Vajpayee. Another issue running in the BJP's favour was the generally positive view of Vajpayee's handling of the Kargil War, which had ended a few months earlier and had affirmed and strengthened the Indian position in Kashmir. During the past two years India had posted strong economic growth on the back of economic liberalisation and financial reforms, as well as a low rate of inflation and higher rate of industrial expansion. The BJP campaigned strongly on the back of these achievements, as well as cultivating some sympathy for the predicament which had led to the government's downfall. [4] [5]
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.
Kashmir is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and Chinese-administered territories of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.
Perhaps most decisive though in the BJP's campaign was the solid alliance it had cultivated and the relatively strong performance it was able to deliver on regional and local issues. The 1991, 1996, and 1998 elections saw a period of consistent growth for the BJP and its allies, based primarily on political expansions in terms of cultivating stronger and broader alliances with other previously unaffiliated parties; and regional expansion which had seen the NDA become competitive and even the largest vote takers in previously Congress dominated areas such as Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Assam. These final factors were to prove decisive in the election outcome of 1999. [6] [7]
The voting was conducted over five days. Elections were conducted in 146 seats on the Eastern coast of the country on 5 September, in 123 Central and Southern seats on 11 September, in 76 Northern and Upper-Central seats on 18 September, in 74 North Western seats on 25 September and in the 121 Western seats on 3 October. Despite some fears of voter fatigue, electoral turnout was comparable with previous elections at 59.99%. Over 5 million election officials conducted the election over 800,000 polling stations, with vote counting commencing on 6 October. [8] [9]
The results were decisively in favour of the BJP and the NDA, with the formal NDA picking up 269 seats, and a further 29 seats taken by the Telugu Desam Party, which gave support to the BJP-led government but was not strictly part of its alliance. The Congress party lost 23 seats, and its two key regional allies performed worse than expected, however it did regain ground in some states such as Uttar Pradesh (where it had been wiped out in 1998, not winning a single seat in the state). The leftist parties’ fortunes continued to decline, with the Communist Party of India dropping to just four seats and losing its official status as a "national party". [10]
The result for the Indian National Congress was the worst in nearly half a century, with party leader Sonia Gandhi calling upon the party to take a frank assessment of itself – "the result calls for introspection, frank assessment and determined action. We will attend to this in the coming days. In the meantime, we accept unhesitatingly the verdict of the people". For the BJP, this marked the first occasion where a non-INC party had secured a stable government coalition. Previous non-INC governing coalitions had been formed in 1977, 1989 and 1996; however none of these administrations had been able to maintain a stable coagulation for more than a couple of years. One Senior BJP figure commented in the aftermath "It will certainly be a government of stability...I expect that Mr Vajpayee, with all his experience, will be able to handle our coalition partners." [11]
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of India |
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Legislatures: ——————— Urban bodies: |
Parties and Alliances | Votes | % | Change | Seats | Change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) | 135,103,344 | 37.06 | −0.15 | 270 | +16 | |
• Bharatiya Janata Party | 86,562,209 | 23.75 | −1.84 | 182 | — | |
• Janata Dal (United) | 11,282,084 | 3.10 | * | 21 | * | |
• Shiv Sena | 5,672,412 | 1.56 | −0.21 | 15 | +9 | |
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 6,298,832 | 1.73 | +0.29 | 12 | +6 | |
• Biju Janata Dal | 4,378,536 | 1.20 | +0.20 | 10 | +1 | |
• Nationalist Trinamool Congress | 9,363,785 | 2.57 | +0.15 | 8 | +1 | |
• Pattali Makkal Katchi | 2,377,741 | 0.65 | +0.23 | 5 | — | |
• Indian National Lok Dal | 2,002,700 | 0.55 | * | 5 | * | |
• Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 1,620,527 | 0.44 | — | 4 | +1 | |
• Jammu and Kashmir National Conference | 454,481 | 0.12 | −0.09 | 4 | +1 | |
• Shiromani Akali Dal | 2,502,949 | 0.69 | −0.12 | 2 | −6 | |
• Rashtriya Lok Dal | 1,364,030 | 0.37 | * | 2 | * | |
• Lok Shakti | 40,997 | 0.01 | −0.68 | 0 | −3 | |
• Asom Gana Parishad | 1,182,061 | 0.32 | −0.03 | 0 | — | |
Other BJP Affiliated Parties | ||||||
• Telugu Desam Party | 13,297,370 | 3.65 | +0.88 | 29 | +12 | |
Indian National Congress | 103,120,330 | 28.30 | +2.48 | 114 | −27 | |
Other INC Affiliated Parties | 18,753,722 | 5.15 | +4.83 | 21 | +18 | |
• All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 7,046,953 | 1.93 | +0.10 | 10 | −8 | |
• Rashtriya Janata Dal | 10,150,492 | 2.79 | +0.01 | 7 | −7 | |
• United Democratic Front | — | — | — | — | — | |
• Kerala Congress | 365,313 | 0.10 | +0.01 | 1 | +1 | |
• Kerala Congress (Mani) | 357,402 | 0.10 | — | 1 | — | |
• Muslim League Kerala State Committee | 833,562 | 0.23 | +0.01 | 2 | — | |
Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 19,695,767 | 5.40 | +0.24 | 33 | +1 | |
Samajwadi Party (Socialist Party) | 13,717,021 | 3.76 | −1.17 | 26 | +6 | |
Bahujan Samaj Party (Majority Society Party) | 15,175,845 | 4.16 | −0.51 | 14 | +9 | |
Other Seated Parties | 24,826,373 | 6.79 | * | 30 | * | |
• Nationalist Congress Party | 8,260,311 | 2.27 | * | 8 | * | |
• Communist Party of India | 5,395,119 | 1.48 | −0.27 | 4 | −5 | |
• Revolutionary Socialist Party | 1,500,817 | 0.41 | −0.14 | 3 | −2 | |
• All India Forward Bloc | 1,288,060 | 0.35 | +0.02 | 2 | — | |
• Akhil Bharatiya Lok Tantrik Congress | 818,713 | 0.22 | * | 2 | * | |
• Janata Dal (Secular) | 3,332,702 | 0.91 | * | 1 | * | |
• Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation | 1,220,698 | 0.33 | +0.08 | 1 | +1 | |
• Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangha | 692,559 | 0.19 | * | 1 | * | |
• All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimen | 448,165 | 0.12 | −0.01 | 1 | — | |
• MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 396,216 | 0.11 | +0.03 | 1 | +1 | |
• Shiromani Akali Dal (Simranjit Singh Mann) | 298,846 | 0.08 | >+0.01 | 1 | +1 | |
• Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | 297,337 | 0.08 | −0.24 | 1 | — | |
• Peasants and Workers Party of India | 282,583 | 0.08 | +0.01 | 1 | — | |
• Himachal Vikas Congress | 264,002 | 0.07 | +0.05 | 1 | +1 | |
• Manipur State Congress Party | 222,417 | 0.06 | +0.01 | 1 | — | |
• Sikkim Democratic Front | 107,828 | 0.03 | — | 1 | — | |
Unseated Parties | 10,751,176 | 2.99 | — | 0 | — | |
Independents | 9,996,386 | 2.74 | +0.37 | 6 | — | |
Nominated Anglo-Indians | — | — | — | 2 | — | |
Total | 364,437,294 | 100% | 545 | |||
Source: Electoral Commission of India, Statistical Report on General Elections, 1999 to the 13th Lok Sabha
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