1996 Indian general election

none gov Parlamentswahl in Indien 1996 May 2026 July 2016 July 2026 India parliamentary 1991 Indian general election 1991 1998 Indian general election 1998 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 543 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha 272 592,572,288 57.94% ( 1.21pp) Atal Bihari Vajpayee 2004 (cropped).jpg 130 130 135 0 0 Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bharatiya Janata Party 20.07%, 120 seats 161 41 67,950,851 20.29% 0.18pp P. V. Narasimha Rao.JPG 130 130 135 0 0 P. V. Narasimha Rao Indian National Congress 36.40%, 244 seats 140 104 96,455,493 28.80% 7.46pp H. D. Deve Gowda BNC.jpg 130 130 150 0 0 H. D. Deve Gowda UF Janata Dal 11.73%, 59 seats 46 13 27,070,340 8.08% 3.76pp Surjith-6.JPG 220 130 150 30 40 Harkishan Singh Surjeet UF Communist Party of India (Marxist) 6.16%, 35 seats 32 3 20,496,810 6.12% 0.04pp Wahlergebnisse Indien 1996.svg Results by constituency Prime Minister Prime Minister after election P. V. Narasimha Rao Indian National Congress Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bharatiya Janata Party List of members of the 10th Lok Sabha List of members of the 11th Lok Sabha Alliance seats 187 143 General elections were held in India on 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 to elect the members of the eleventh Lok Sabha. The elections resulted in a hung parliament with no single party having a majority.https://www.thehindu.com/elections/the-united-front-experiment-elections-that-shaped-india-1996-1998-elections/article67707166.ece Elections that shaped India, The United Front experiment (1996-98) The Hindu 7 April 2024 Karthikeyan Suchitra The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had won the most seats despite finishing second in the popular vote, formed a short-lived government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, two weeks later the United Front coalition was able to secure a parliamentary majority and H. D. Deve Gowda of Janata Dal became prime minister. In 1997 Inder Kumar Gujral, also from the United Front, succeeded Gowda as prime minister. Due to the instability, early elections were held in 1998.https://indianexpress.com/article/india/1952-2019-lok-sabha-election-results-history-9369279/ 1952 to 2019: A look at India's general election results so far 4 June 2024 The elections were the first since 1980 in which every states' seats were elected in a single election period.https://zeenews.india.com/lok-sabha-general-elections-2019/inkredible-india-the-story-of-1996-lok-sabha-election-all-you-need-to-know-2198293.html INKredible India: The story of 1996 Lok Sabha election - All you need to know Background The Indian National Congress government of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao came into the election on the back of several government scandals like the 1992 Indian stock market scam and accusations of mismanagement. Seven cabinet members had resigned during the previous term, and Rao himself faced charges of corruption. The Congress(I) more generally had been plagued in recent years by a series of splits, conflicts and factional disputes that had seen various key regional parties and figures abandon the party. In particular, the high-profile May 1995 defection of Arjun Singh and Narayan Datt Tiwari to form the new All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) party underscored the internal divisions within the Congress (Indira). The government was further weakened by a series of major scandals breaking less than 12 months from the election. In July 1995 it was found a former Congress(I) youth leader had murdered his wife and tried to destroy the evidence by stuffing her corpse into a tandoor (clay oven). In August 1995 the Vohra Report was finally released to the parliament, decrying that a politician-criminal nexus was "virtually running a parallel government, pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance".Vohra N The Vohra Committee Report October 1993 Chapter 3.4, pp.3 Government credibility fell further still when in late 1995 violence significantly worsened in the Kashmir region, and sporadic fighting and ethnic tensions boiled over in Punjab province. As a result of the scandals, the Rao government went into the 1996 election at a low of ebb of public support.Vohra Ranbir The Making of India 2001 M.E. Sharpe Armonk 282–284 978-0-7656-0712-6 Campaign The elections triggered a significant realignment of political forces in Indians, with all-India parties attempting to construct widespread regional coalitions with minor parties in order to secure a central majority. Such political negotiations were to become an increasingly necessary process in Indian politics over the next two decades as the dominance of the INC(I) declined and smaller, ethnic and regional parties took its place. The Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Lal Krishna Advani attempted to add several regional coalition partners - most notably the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bahujan Samaj Party, but was ultimately unsuccessful in overcoming ideological differences. Yet it did join with several strong regional partners - Shiv Sena, Haryana Vikas Party, and the Samata Party. The Congress(I) party attempted to form regional allies as well, most notably with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.Heath Oliver Parties and Party Politics in India Zoya Hasan Oxford University Press New Delhi 2006 978-0-19-566833-9 Oxford India Paperbacks Anatomy of the BJP's Rise to Power: Social, Regional and Political Expansion in 1990sWallace Paul Ramashray Roy India's 1999 Elections and 20th Century Politics Sage 2003 978-0-7619-9598-2 The so-called "Third Force" during the 1996 elections was the National Front. After its collapse in 1990, the coalition had chopped and changed before reuniting in the run up to the 1996 election. Three main parties grouped back together in September 1995 in hopes of presenting a viable political choice - the Communist parties like the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist), Janata Dal and the Telugu Desam Party. It attempted to build a wider coalition of regional partners and state parties, however negotiations repeatedly broke down, and no consensus could be arrived at on a 'common minimum program' - a platform of issues on which all parties could agree upon. A split in the Uttar Pradesh government in December 1995 divided the front further. Finally, lacking a strong leader or common set of principles, the main three parties joined with the Samajwadi Party in a common goal of simply denying power to either the Congress(I) or BJP. Thus a characteristic of the 1996 elections was a large number of strong regional and state parties declined to form an alliance with any of the three major contenders for government.Pai Sudha Transformation of the Indian Party System: The 1996 Lok Sabha Elections Asian Survey 1996 University of California Press 36 12 1177–1179 10.2307/2645573 2645573 In January, only a few months before the election, a major scandal erupted: the Jain hawala scandal. Jain, an industrialist in the steel and power sectors, was revealed to have given US$33 million in bribes to politicians from nearly all major parties in return for favours. Further shocking the public, Jain had also channelled money to Kashmiri Muslim militants. In the first wave of names implicated were three Rao cabinet members, Arjun Singh from the breakaway Congress (T) party, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani, Sharad Yadav (leader of the Janata Dal parliamentary party), and former Congress(I) Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Almost 115 names would eventually be released, and numerous candidates and ministers were forced to resign in the aftermath. Most significantly was the resignation of L.K. Advani as Member of Parliament, though he continued to lead the election campaigning as the BJP's president.Vohra Ranbir The Making of India 2001 M.E. Sharpe Armonk 288–290 978-0-7656-0712-6 The BJP ran a campaign centred around a four-point plan which aimed for probity of public life, self-reliance in the economy, social harmony and greater security. It strongly advocated an economic plan which would significantly scale back government intervention and encourage capital investment and creation. In the backdrop of the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, BJP stressed on the role of Hindutva in its vision for India, creating a more Hindu-orientated state by removing the provisions of secularism and making Hinduism the country's state religion, implementing a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, abolishing personal laws of non-Hindus by introducing a uniform civil code and removing the special status of Kashmir alongside construction of the Ram-mandir as its main agenda. The Congress(I) Party attempted to campaign on its foreign policy record, its handling of the numerous natural and ethnic crises that had emerged over the past five years, and on better concessions for ethnic minorities and empowering the state governments. It additionally stressed the economic gains already made by the government due to its liberalization policies post 1992. However it drew flak for promising re-construction of the demolished mosque at the disputed site of Ayodhya in its electoral manifesto, leading the BJP to accuse the Congress (Indira) of indulging in Muslim appeasement and fostering Hinduphobia. The Janata Dal and the National Front campaigned on maintaining a strong public sector though with some commitment to deregulation and anti-corruption measures while committing to implement the Mandal Commission report. It also pushed other more populist measures as well, such as more state-run infrastructure projects, subsidised fertilizer, and increased education investment.Vohra Ranbir The Making of India 2001 M.E. Sharpe Armonk 290–293 978-0-7656-0712-6 Results Results of the 1996 Indian general election The BJP capitalised on the communal polarisation that followed the demolition of Babri Masjid to win 161 Lok Sabha seats, making it the largest party in parliament. L.K. Advani, whose aggressive campaigning as BJP president is widely credited with these results.Guha Ramachandra Ramachandra Guha India after Gandhi: the history of the world's largest democracy 2007 Picador India 978-0-330-39610-3 India after Gandhi 633 The election delivered an unclear mandate and resulted in a hung parliament. Although Congress continued to remain the single largest party in terms of voteshare, it was for the first time since the country's first general elections that the Congress' voteshare fell below 30% on a national scale. The Congress also for the first time in its existence, won fewer than 150 seats in a general election, surpassing the record of 154 seats in the 1977 general elections. Hence the result was considered as the worst result of the Congress party in its history to that date, with commentators blaming the poor result on the personal unpopularity of Prime Minister Rao and the numerous internal divisions that had dogged the party alongside the religious polarisation fueled by the BJP under the Ayodhya dispute. Congress(I) was almost wiped out in its traditional strongholds of Uttar Pradesh & Bihar with many stalwarts like Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Jagannath Mishra, Satyendra Narayan Sinha suffered electoral setbacks inflicted by both Janata Dal & BJP.Elections 1996: 11th Lok Sabha elections saw eclipse of the National Constituency syndrome India Today, 31 May 1996 The BJP became the largest party within the Lok Sabha, a first for a non-Congress party, although it secured neither a significant increase in the popular vote or enough seats to secure a parliamentary majority.http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/india/indianelection.html 1996 Indian Parliamentary Elections: What Happened? What Next? Hardgrave Robert 1996 University of Texas 12 December 2008 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080807161934/http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/countries/india/indianelection.html 7 August 2008 350px Indian National Congress 96455493 140 Bharatiya Janata Party 67950851 161 Janata Dal 27070340 46 Communist Party of India (Marxist) 20496810 32 Bahujan Samaj Party 13453235 11 Samajwadi Party 10989241 17 Telugu Desam Party 9931826 16 Tamil Maanila Congress 7339982 20 Samata Party 7256086 8 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 7151381 17 Communist Party of India 6582263 12 Shiv Sena 4989994 15 All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) 4903070 4 NTR Telugu Desam Party (Lakshmi Parvathi) 3249267 0 Asom Gana Parishad 2560506 5 Shiromani Akali Dal 2534979 8 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 2130286 0 Revolutionary Socialist Party 2105469 5 Republican Party of India 1454363 0 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha 1287072 1 All India Forward Bloc 1279492 3 Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1235812 0 Haryana Vikas Party 1156322 3 Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation 808065 0 Indian Union Muslim League 757316 2 Janata Party 631021 0 Karnataka Congress Party 581868 1 Pattali Makkal Katchi 571910 0 Peasants and Workers Party of India 437805 0 Indian Congress (Socialist) 404261 0 Kerala Congress (M) 382319 1 All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen 340070 1 Shiromani Akali Dal (Simranjit Singh Mann) 339520 0 Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress 337539 1 Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh 329695 0 Kerala Congress 320539 0 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Mardi) 299055 0 United Minorities Front, Assam 244571 0 Apna Dal 222669 0 Autonomous State Demand Committee 180112 1 Forward Bloc (Socialist) 172685 0 Gujarat Adijati Vikash Paksh 166003 0 Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party 129220 1 Sikkim Democratic Front 124218 1 Federal Party of Manipur 120557 0 Marxist Co-ordination Committee 114406 0 Krantikari Samajwadi Manch 113975 0 Mizo National Front 111710 0 United Goans Democratic Party 109346 1 Jharkhand Party (Naren) 102111 0 Jammu & Kashmir Panthers Party 99599 0 Savarn Samaj Party 84725 0 Jharkhand Party 78907 0 Majlis Bachao Tahreek 78335 0 Nag Vidarbha Andolan Samiti 66065 0 Peoples Democratic Party 65641 0 Amra Bangali 65595 0 Mahabharat People's Party 64266 0 Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha 60361 0 Jharkhand People's Party 58132 0 Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) 52585 0 Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti 52300 0 Akhil Bharatiya Jan Sangh 49978 0 Satya Marg Party 48056 0 Sikkim Sangram Parishad 42175 0 Lok Hit Party 37127 0 United Tribal Nationalist Liberation Front 34803 0 Pavitra Hindustan Kaazhagam 34147 0 Marxist Communist Party of India (S.S. Srivastava) 33900 0 Kannada Chalevali Vatal Paksha 31136 0 Akhil Bharatiya Bhrastachar Normoolan Sena 30970 0 Hul Jharkhand Party 30220 0 Bhoomijotak Samooh 29874 0 Proutist Sarva Samaj Samiti 26403 0 Akhil Bhartiya Loktantra Party 25131 0 Republican Party of India (Athawale) 22640 0 Uttar Pradesh Republican Party 22515 0 Anaithinthiya Thamizhaga Munnetra Kazhag 19394 0 New India Party 19135 0 Bhatiya Krishi Udyog Sangh 17744 0 Indian National League 15954 0 Jan Parishad 15112 0 Rashtriya Nayay Party 13160 0 Lokdal 11957 0 Shoshit Samaj Dal 11937 0 Bahujan Kranti Dal (JAI) 11735 0 Mahakushal Vikas Party 11152 0 Jansatta Party 10901 0 Bharatiya Minorities Suraksha Mahasangh 10657 0 Republican Party of India (Democratic) 10072 0 Gondwana Ganatantra Party 9985 0 Pragtisheel Manav Samaj Party 9974 0 Akhil Bharatiya Berozgaar Party 9813 0 Janhit Morcha 9404 0 Hindustan Janata Party 9208 0 Rashtriya Samajwadi Party 'pragatisheel' 8779 0 Lok Party 8758 0 Pachim Banga Rajya Muslim League 8624 0 Republican Party of India (Khobragade) 8491 0 Akhil Bhartiya Janata Vikas Party 7726 0 Arya Sabha 7563 0 Bharatiya Jan Sabha 7338 0 Republican Presidium Party of India 7298 0 Bahujan Kranti Dal 6968 0 Political Party of National Management Service 6667 0 Rashtriya Surajya Parishad 6000 0 Samajwadi Janata Party (Maharashtra) 5784 0 Maharashtra Pradesh Krantikari Party 5765 0 Akhil Bartiya Manav Seva Dal 5673 0 National Republican Party 5271 0 Indian Democratic Party 5084 0 Bharatiya Lok Tantrik Mazdoor Dal 5075 0 Surajya Party 4917 0 Hindu Mahasabha 4720 0 Rashtriya Aikta Manch 4574 0 National Democratic Peoples Front 4462 0 Bolshevik Party of India 4345 0 Bharatiya Lok Panchayat 4018 0 Bharatiya Rashtriya Party 3724 0 Rashtriya Kisan Party 3635 0 Akhil Bharatiya Mahasand Sarvahara Krantikari Party 3552 0 Bharatiya Labour Party 3550 0 Rashtriya Unnatsheel Das 3476 0 Rashtriya Samdarshi Party 3360 0 Vijeta Party 3328 0 Satyayug Party 3319 0 Bharatiya Rashtriya Morcha 3181 0 Rashtriya Mazdoor Ekta Party 3176 0 Marxist Engelist Leninist Proletariat Health Commune 3155 0 Akhil Bharatiya Rashtriya Azad Hind Party 3152 0 Bahujan Samaj Party (Raj Bahadur) 3114 0 Socialist Party (Lohia) 3006 0 Kannada Paksha 2883 0 Bharatiya Manav Raksha Dal 2796 0 Akhil Bharatiya Dalit Utthan Party 2654 0 Akhil Bharatiya Desh Bhakt Morcha 2295 0 Indian Secular Congress 2136 0 Bira Oriya Party 2088 0 Republican Party of India (Sivaraj) 2081 0 Bharathiya Nethaji Party 2024 0 Bharatiya Rajiv Congress 1967 0 Bharatiya Jantantrik Parishad 1867 0 Ekta Samaj Party 1852 0 Congress Of People 1850 0 Revolutionary Communist Party Of India (Rasik Bhatt) 1803 0 Bhartiya Ekta Party 1801 0 Shoshit Samaj Party 1684 0 Samajwadi Dal 1637 0 Akhil Bharatiya Shivsena Rashtrawadi 1477 0 Bharatiya Kranti Sena 1439 0 Indian Democratic People's Party 1438 0 Ekta Krandi Dal U.P. 1409 0 Indian Bahujan Samajwadi Party 1376 0 Sarvadharam Party (Madhya Pradesh) 1327 0 People's Democratic League of India 1276 0 Punjab Vikas Party (Punjab) 1185 0 Desh Bhakt Party 1148 0 Sabjan Party 1120 0 Akhil Bharatiya Lok Tantrik Alp-Sankhyak Jan Morcha 1111 0 Kisan Vyawasayee Mazdoor Party 1056 0 Pratap Shiv Sena 1049 0 Adarsh Lok Dal 1037 0 Gareebjan Samaj Party 962 0 Akhil Bharatiya Dharmnirpeksh Dal 894 0 All India Azad Hind Mazdur & Jan Kalyan Party 883 0 Bahujan Loktantrik Party 857 0 Socialist Party (Ramakant Pandey) 848 0 Manav Sewa Sangh 841 0 Bharatiya Samajwadi Vikas Party 805 0 Akhil Bhartiya Rajarya Sabha 787 0 Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) 786 0 Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad 724 0 Ambedkar Kranti Dal 667 0 Bhartiya Jan Kisan Party 633 0 Mahabharath Mahajan Sabha 572 0 Bharatiya Samaj Sangathan Morcha 535 0 Rashtriya Bharat Nav Nirman Sangathan 528 0 Samajik Kranti Dal 522 0 Rashtriya Krantikari Dal 520 0 Bharat Jan Party 505 0 Hind National Party 496 0 Sachet Bharat Party 470 0 Bhartiya Azad Party 457 0 Bhrishtachar Virodhi Dal 434 0 Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad (Prem Ballabh Vyas) 428 0 Tamil Nadu Hindu Vellalar Youth Kazhagam 422 0 Pragati Sheel Party 407 0 Socialist League of India 384 0 United Indian Democratic Council 374 0 Rashtriya Samaj Sevak Dal 348 0 Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Mazdoor Morcha 345 0 Hindu Praja Party 332 0 Janata Kranti Congress 324 0 Mukt Bharat 295 0 Jan Swarajya Party 278 0 Gujarat Janta Parishad 266 0 Bharat Pensioner's Front 231 0 Bharatiya Parivartan Morcha 231 0 All India Democratic People Federation 195 0 Akhil Bharatiya Jagrook Nagrik Dal 176 0 Federation of Sabhas 142 0 Hind Kisan Mazdoor Party 131 0 Poorvanchal Rashtriya Congress 124 0 Kranti Dal 112 0 Jan Ekata Morcha 94 0 Bharatiya Sarvkalyan Krantidal 89 0 Manav Samaj Party 74 0 Labour Party of India (V.V. Prasad) 68 0 Bharatiya Rashtrawadi Dal 53 0 Independents 21041557 9 Nominated Anglo-Indians 2 8434804 592572288 ECI Results by state/union territory State/Union TerritoryTotalseatsSeats wonBJPINCJDCPMTMCSPDMKTDPSHSCPIBSPINDOTHAndhra Pradesh422211621Arunachal Pradesh22Assam1415116Bihar54182221317Goa22Gujarat261610Haryana104213Himachal Pradesh44Jammu and Kashmir6141Karnataka2865161Kerala20715214Madhya Pradesh40278212Maharashtra48181515Manipur22Meghalaya211Mizoram11Nagaland11Orissa211641Punjab13238Rajasthan2512121Sikkim11Tamil Nadu3920172Tripura22Uttar Pradesh85525216613West Bengal4292337A & N Islands11Chandigarh11D & N Haveli11Daman and Diu11Delhi752Lakshadweep11Pondicherry11Total543161140463220171716151211947 Aftermath Following Westminster custom, President Shankar Dayal Sharma invited Atal Bihari Vajpayee as leader of the BJP to form a government. Sworn in on 15 May, the new prime minister was given two weeks to prove majority support in parliament. In the weeks leading up to the first confidence vote on 31 May, the BJP attempted to build a coalition by moderating positions to garner support from regional and Muslim parties, however sectarian issues and fears of certain nationalist policies of the BJP hampered efforts. On 28 May, Vajpayee conceded that he could not arrange support from more than 200 of the 545 members of parliament, and thus resigned rather than face the confidence vote, ending his 13-day government.http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9605/28/india/index.html India's prime minister resigns after 13 days CNN 28 May 1996 12 December 2008 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20040825063513/http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9605/28/india/index.html 25 August 2004 The second largest party, the Indian National Congress (Indira), also declined to form a government. After Janata Dal leader V. P. Singh refused to become prime minister for a second time, CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu was approached by the National Front to be its prime ministerial face, but the party politburo refused to endorse it (a decision which Basu later criticised as a "historic blunder") in order to affirm its commitment towards establishing dictatorship of the proletariat. Basu put forward the name of Janata Dal leader and Karnataka Chief Minister H. D. Deve Gowda as the candidate for the Prime Minister post. Janata Dal and a bloc of smaller parties thus formed the United Front government, with outside support from INC(I). Gowda resigned on 21 April 1997 due to withdrawal of support by the Indian National CongressAfter 1996 the Indian National Congress (Indira) dropped the suffix 'Indira' from its name, becoming known as Indian National Congress to pave way for I. K. Gujral, who maintained good relations with the Congress. However the Fodder Scam resulted in many United Front members demanding the resignation of Lalu Prasad Yadav, an alliance partner and the then Chief Minister of Bihar. Yadav retaliated by breaking away from Janata Dal and forming Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on 3 July 1997. Out of 45 Janata Dal members of parliament, 17 left the party and supported Yadav. However, the new party continued to support the United Front and Gujral's government was saved from immediate danger. Gujral resigned 11 months later when INC withdrew support from the government over Gujral's refusal to expel DMK from the government, whose leader M. Karunanidhi was implicated in assisting Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and the country went back to the polls in 1998. See also List of members of the 11th Lok Sabha 1996 Indian general election by state or union territory Notes References General General General India Category:General elections in India