History of Elections: 12th Lok Sabha (1998)

After Gujral govt. fell in 1998, elections were held. BJP emerged as the single largest party with 182 seats. Congress came second with 141 seats. BJP got chance to form govt. under Vajpayee. It formed a grand alliance of 14 parties with 286 seats. Prominent allies included AIADMK, Samata Party (now JDU), Biju Janata Dal, Akali Dal, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, PMK, MDMK etc.

Govt. lasted only 13 months.  Jayalalitha led to the downfall of the govt.  as Vajpayee refused to dismiss DMK govt. in Tamil Nadu. She pulled the plug and Vajpayee lost trust vote by 1 vote. A Congress MP came to vote on a stretcher. Subramanium Swamy who today chants Namo Namo played a crucial role in downfall of govt. along with Sonia (who he bad mouths daily) and Jayalalitha.

7 national parties and 170 state parties fought for 543 seats. BJP gained in Karnataka and UP. Congress seats were constant. Janata Dal lost badly in Bihar and UP impacted by defections.

Parties	Seats Won	Change	Votes%
BHARATIYA JANTA PARTY(BJP)	182	21	26%
INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (INC)	141	1	26%
OTHER STATE / UNRECOGNISED PARTIES	42	(19)	9%
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST)( CPM)	32	0	5%
SAMAJWADI PARTY(SP)	20	3	5%
ALL INDIA ANNA DRAVIDA MUNNETRA KAZHAGAM(AIADMK)	18	18	2%
RASHTRIYA JANATA DAL*	17	17	3%
SAMATA PARTY(SAP)	12	4	2%
TELUGU DESAM PARTY(TDP)	12	(4)	3%
COMMUNIST  PARTY OF INDIA (CPI)	9	(3)	2%
BIJU JANATA DAL*	9	9	1%
AKALI DAL	8	0	1%
ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS (TMC)**	7	7	2%
JANTA DAL (JD)	6	(40)	3%
INDEPENDENT(IND)	6	(3)	2%
SHIV SENA (SS)	6	6	2%
DRAVIDA MUNNETRA KAZHAGAM(DMK)	6	(11)	1%
BAHUJAN SAMAJ PARTY( BSP)	5	(6)	5%
REVOLUTIONIST SOCIALIST PARTY (RSP)	5	0	1%
TOTAL	543		100%

*Formed as an offshoot of Janata Dal by Lalu Yadav and Biju Patnaik respectively.

**Formed as an offshoot of Congress by Mamata Banerjee.

Source: Statistical Report, Election Commission, 1998 & Wikipedia

Some Interesting Facts

• Voting population was 60.6 crores (2009 elections 71.4 crores)
• Voting % was 60.1% (2009 elections 59.7%)
• 4,750 candidates participated, 8.75 per constituency (2009 average 14.86)
• 73.3% candidates lost their deposits (2009 elections 84.6%)