1989 Indian general election

General elections were held in India in 1989 to elect the members of the 9th Lok Sabha.[2] The incumbent Indian National Congress (I) government under the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi was defeated by the National Front, an alliance forged by Janata Dal, which won a plurality of seats. The alliance formed the government with outside support from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[3][4] V. P. Singh was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of India on 2 December 1989.

1989 Indian general election
22 and 26 November 1989[1]
All 545 seats in the Lok Sabha
273 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout61.95% (2.06%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Rajiv Gandhi V. P. Singh L. K. Advani
Party INC JD BJP
Alliance INC+ NF supported NF
Leader's seat Amethi Fatehpur New Delhi
Seats won 197 143 85
Seat change 217 143 83
Percentage 39.53% 17.78% 11.36%
Swing 8.44% New 3.62%
Prime Minister before election

Rajiv Gandhi
Indian National Congress

 Subsequent Prime Minister

V. P. Singh
Janata Dal

Background

The 1989 Indian general election were held because the previous Lok Sabha has been in power for a five years, and the constitution allowed for new elections. Even though Rajiv Gandhi had won the last election by a landslide, this election saw him trying to fight off scandals that had marred his administration.

The Bofors scandal, rising militancy in Punjab, the civil war between LTTE and Sri Lankan government were just some of the problems that stared at Rajiv's government. Rajiv's biggest critic was Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who had held the portfolios of the finance ministry and the defence ministry in the government.

But Singh was soon sacked from the Cabinet and he then resigned from his memberships in the Congress and the Lok Sabha. He formed the Jan Morcha with Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan and re-entered the Lok Sabha from Allahabad. Witnessing V P Singh's meteoric rise on national stage, Rajiv tried to counter[5] him with another prominent Rajput stalwart Satyendra Narain Singh but failed eventually.

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Results
Lok Sabha elections 1989
Electoral participation: 61.95%		 % Won
(total 545)
Bharatiya Janata Party BJP 11.36 85
Communist Party of India CPI 2.57 12
Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) 6.55 33
Indian Congress (Socialist) IC(S) 0.33 1
Indian National Congress INC 39.53 197
Janata Dal JD 17.79 143
Janata Party JP 1.01 0
Lok Dal (Bahuguna) LD(B) 0.2 0
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK 1.5 11
All India Forward Bloc AIFB 0.42 3
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK 2.39 0
Indian Congress (J) Trikha Group ICJ(TG) 0.0 0
Indian Union Muslim League IUML 0.32 2
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference NC 0.2 3
Jammu & Kashmir Panthers Party JPP 0.0 0
Kerala Congress KC 0.02 0
Kuki National Assembly NC 0.04 0
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MGP 0.04 1
Manipur Peoples Party MPP 0.05 0
Mizo National Front MNF 0.02 0
Nagaland Peoples Council NPC 0.08 0
Peoples Party of Arunachal PPA 0.3 0
Peasants and Workers Party of India PWPI 0.21 0
Revolutionary Socialist Party RSP 0.62 4
Shiromani Akali Dal SAD 0.03 0
Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) SAD(B) 0.14 0
Sikkim Sangram Parishad SSP 0.03 1
Telugu Desam Party TDP 3.29 2
Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha ABHS 0.07 1
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimen AIMIM 0.21 1
Bahujan Samaj Party BSP 2.07 3
Gorkha National Liberation Front GNLF 0.14 1
Indian Peoples Front IPF 0.25 1
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha JMM 0.34 3
Kerala Congress (Mani) KC(M) 0.12 1
Marxist Coordination Committee MCO 0.08 1
Shiromani Akali Dal (Simranjit Singh Mann) SAD(M) 0.77 6
Shiv Sena SS 0.11 1
Independents – 5.25 12
Nominated Anglo-Indians – – 2

9th Lok Sabha constituted.[6]

Premiership

V. P. Singh as Prime Minister

V. P. Singh, who was the head of the Janata Dal, was chosen leader of the National Front government.[7] His government fell after Singh, along with Bihar's Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's government, had Advani arrested in Samastipur and stopped his Ram Rath Yatra, which was going to the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya on 23 October 1990. Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew their support to Singh government, causing them to lose parliamentary vote of confidence on 7 November 1990.[8]

Chandra Sekhar as Prime Minister

Chandra Shekhar broke away from the Janata Dal with 64 MPs and formed the Samajwadi Janata Party in 1990. He got outside support from the Congress and became the 9th Prime Minister of India. He finally resigned on 21 June 1991, after the Congress alleged that the government was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.

See also

References
  1. "INDIA: Parliamentary elections Lok Sabha, 1989".
  2. "Elections 1989: Congress(I) faces prospect of being routed in Bihar".
  3. "V. P. Singh, a Leader of India Who Defended Poor, Dies at 77". The New York Times. 29 November 2008.
  4. Indian Parliamentary Democracy. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. 2003. p. 124. ISBN 978-81-269-0193-7.
  5. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Opinions".
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "V. P. Singh: Prime Minister of India who tried to improve the lot of the poor". The Independent. 19 December 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  8. "India's Cabinet Falls as Premier Loses Confidence Vote, by 142–346, and Quits". The New York Times. 8 November 1990.
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