1989 Indian general election

22 and 26 November 1989[1]
529 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha 265 seats needed for a majority
Registered	498,906,129
Turnout	61.95% ( 2.06 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Rajiv Gandhi V. P. Singh Party INC JD Last election 46.86%, 414 seats 13.50%, 14 seats Seats won 197 143 Seat change 217 129 Popular vote 118,894,702 53,518,521 Percentage 39.53% 17.79% Swing 7.33 pp 4.29pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader L. K. Advani E. M. S. Namboodiripad Party BJP CPI(M) Last election 7.74%, 2 seats 5.87%, 22 seats Seats won 85 33 Seat change 83 11 Popular vote 34,171,477 19,691,309 Percentage 11.36% 6.55% Swing 3.62 pp 0.68 pp
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election Rajiv Gandhi INC Prime Minister after election V. P. Singh National Front

General elections were held in India on 22 and 26 November 1989 to elect the members of the ninth Lok Sabha.^[1] The incumbent Indian National Congress government under the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi lost its mandate, even though it was still the largest single party in the Lok Sabha.^[2] V. P. Singh, the leader of the second largest party Janata Dal (which also headed the National Front) was invited by the President of India to form the government.^[3] The government was formed with outside support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Left Front led by CPI (M).^[4] V. P. Singh was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of India on 2 December 1989.

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.

In this election, Assam never went to the polls. Moreover, the Union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu was bifurcated into Goa and Daman & Diu with Goa retaining its 2 seats and the latter gaining 1 seat. Thus the total Lok Sabha seats increased by 1 to a total of 543. Since Assam never went to the polls, the total seats contested in this election was down to 529.

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Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Indian National Congress	118,894,702	39.53	197
	Janata Dal	53,518,521	17.79	143
	Bharatiya Janata Party	34,171,477	11.36	85
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	19,691,309	6.55	33
	Telugu Desam Party	9,909,728	3.29	2
	Communist Party of India	7,734,697	2.57	12
	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	7,196,099	2.39	0
	Bahujan Samaj Party	6,213,390	2.07	3
	All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	4,518,649	1.50	11
	Janata Party	3,029,743	1.01	0
	Shiromani Akali Dal (Simranjit Singh Mann)	2,318,872	0.77	6
	Revolutionary Socialist Party	1,854,276	0.62	4
	Pattali Makkal Katchi	1,561,371	0.52	0
	Doordarshi Party	1,338,566	0.45	0
	All India Forward Bloc	1,261,310	0.42	3
	Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	1,032,276	0.34	3
	Indian Congress (Socialist) – Sarat Chandra Sinha	978,377	0.33	1
	Indian Union Muslim League	974,234	0.32	2
	Indian People's Front	737,551	0.25	1
	Peasants and Workers Party of India	636,589	0.21	0
	All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen	617,376	0.21	1
	Lok Dal (Bahuguna)	602,110	0.20	0
	Bharatiya Republican Paksha	572,434	0.19	0
	Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha	495,565	0.16	0
	Republican Party of India (Khobragade)	468,615	0.16	0
	Gorkha National Liberation Front	435,070	0.14	1
	Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal)	427,609	0.14	0
	Jharkhand Dal	367,838	0.12	0
	Kerala Congress (M)	352,191	0.12	1
	Shiv Sena	339,426	0.11	1
	Marxist Co-ordination Committee	247,013	0.08	1
	Nagaland People's Council	239,124	0.08	0
	Hindu Mahasabha	217,514	0.07	1
	Manipur Peoples Party	147,128	0.05	0
	Republican Party of India	129,300	0.04	0
	Humanist Party of India	122,947	0.04	0
	All India Dalit Muslim Minorities Suraksha Mahasangh	120,159	0.04	0
	Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party	116,392	0.04	1
	Kuki National Assembly	108,085	0.04	0
	Shiromani Akali Dal	100,570	0.03	0
	Marxist Communist Party of India (S.S. Srivastava)	100,300	0.03	0
	People's Party of Arunachal	96,181	0.03	0
	Uttar Pradesh Republican Party	91,740	0.03	0
	Sikkim Sangram Parishad	91,608	0.03	1
	Amra Bangali	80,834	0.03	0
	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference	71,194	0.02	3
	Mizo National Front	70,749	0.02	0
	Kerala Congress	68,811	0.02	0
	Tharasu Makkal Mandaram	64,885	0.02	0
	Democratic Party	43,667	0.01	0
	Shoshit Samaj Dal	42,282	0.01	0
	Uttarakhand Kranti Dal	39,465	0.01	0
	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)	38,937	0.01	0
	Muslim Majlis Uttar Pradesh	25,839	0.01	0
	Proutist Bloc Of India	23,331	0.01	0
	Jammu & Kashmir Panthers Party	22,625	0.01	0
	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	22,446	0.01	0
	Karnataka Gana Parishad	19,593	0.01	0
	Socialist Party (Lohiya)	17,639	0.01	0
	Tamiliar Kazhagam	12,859	0.00	0
	Rising Sun Party	12,858	0.00	0
	Indian Congress (J) Trikha Group	12,539	0.00	0
	Socialist Party	12,430	0.00	0
	Socialist Unity Centre of India	8,747	0.00	0
	All India Garib Congress	7,635	0.00	0
	Hul Jharkhand Party	6,663	0.00	0
	Bhatiya Krishi Udyog Sangh	5,895	0.00	0
	Lok Party	4,731	0.00	0
	Akhil Bhartiya Gorkha League (Budhiman Gurung)	4,426	0.00	0
	Shoshit Samaj Party	3,756	0.00	0
	Scientific Vedic Revolutionary Party	3,470	0.00	0
	Deseeya Karshaka Party	3,059	0.00	0
	Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad	2,998	0.00	0
	Barat Desam Labour Party	2,944	0.00	0
	Progressive Hul Jharkhand	2,890	0.00	0
	Republicon Presidium Party	2,791	0.00	0
	West Orissa Peoples Front	2,682	0.00	0
	West Bengal Socialist Party (Biman Mitra)	2,411	0.00	0
	All India Shiromani Baba Jiwan Singh Mazhbi Dal	2,368	0.00	0
	Akhil Bhartiya Hindustani Krantikari Samajwadi Party	2,263	0.00	0
	Green Party of India	2,142	0.00	0
	Akhil Baratiya Pichhra Varg Party	2,055	0.00	0
	Tamil Nadu Peoples Welfare Association	1,964	0.00	0
	Sadharam Rajya Parishad	1,928	0.00	0
	Indian National Congress (O) Anti-Merger Group	1,735	0.00	0
	Gujarat Janata Parishad	1,577	0.00	0
	All India Justice Party	1,428	0.00	0
	Peoples Democracy of India	1,392	0.00	0
	Punjab Peoples Party	1,374	0.00	0
	Hindustan Janata Party	1,361	0.00	0
	Bharatha Makkal Congress	1,357	0.00	0
	Deccan Congress	1,332	0.00	0
	Akhil Bhartiya Lok Tantrik Party	1,272	0.00	0
	Vijaya Shakti	1,093	0.00	0
	Bhartiya Loktantrik Mazdoor Dal	1,035	0.00	0
	Pandav Dal	918	0.00	0
	National Republican Party	839	0.00	0
	Bhartiya Loktantrik Mazdoor Sangh	703	0.00	0
	Mahabharat Peoples Party	694	0.00	0
	Indian Union Muslim League (IML)	687	0.00	0
	Manipur Peoples Council	677	0.00	0
	Vishal Bharat Pary	621	0.00	0
	Republican Party of India (Gavai Group)	539	0.00	0
	Punjab Kairon Dal	493	0.00	0
	Peoples Party of India	478	0.00	0
	Indian Labour Party	406	0.00	0
	Socialist Labour League	391	0.00	0
	Bharatiya Krantikari Kisan Sang	367	0.00	0
	Kamaraj Desiya Congress	322	0.00	0
	Punjab Naya Front	314	0.00	0
	Hindu Shiv Sena	160	0.00	0
	Bhartiya Lok Kalyan Dal	145	0.00	0
	Labour Party of India	99	0.00	0
	Independents	15,793,781	5.25	12
Nominated Anglo-Indians				2
Total		300,776,423	100.00	531
Valid votes		300,776,423	97.32
Invalid/blank votes		8,274,072	2.68
Total votes		309,050,495	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		498,906,129	61.95
Source: ECI

Aftermath

V. P. Singh, who was the head of the Janata Dal, was chosen leader of the National Front government.^[6] 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.^[7]

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

• List of members of the 9th Lok Sabha
• Election Commission of India
• 1987 Indian presidential election

References

Bibliography

• Krishna, Ananth V. (2011), India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics, Pearson Education India, ISBN 9788131734650

External links

• "Elections 1989: Congress(I) faces prospect of being routed in Bihar". India Today. 30 November 1989.
• Pandya, Haresh (29 November 2008). "V. P. Singh, a Leader of India Who Defended Poor, Dies at 77". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 November 2020.