India - 9th Lok Sabha 1989

9th Lok Sabha 1989

In many ways the 9th Lok Sabha Elections were a watershed in Indian electoral politics. The elections changed the way politicians would approach the voters, with caste and religion not far from the average Indian voter at any point in time, becoming the pivot. In the previous General Election held after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984-85, the Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi had secured a landslide win with over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha.

However, the 1989 General Elections were fought with the young Rajiv cornered with numerous crises - both internal and external - and the Congress government losing credibility and popularity.

The Bofors scandal, rising terrorism 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. During Singh's term as defence minister it was rumoured that he possessed damaging information about the Bofors defence deal that could ruin Rajiv's reputation.

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.

On October 11, 1988, the Janata Dal was formed by merger of Jan Morcha, Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress (S), in order to bring together all the parties opposed to the Rajiv Gandhi government. Soon, many regional parties rallied around the Janata Dal including the DMK, TDP, and AGP and formed the National Front. The five-party National Front jumped into the electoral fray in 1989 after joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the two communist parties - the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

The elections were held in two phases on November 22 and November 26, 1989 for 525 seats in the Lok Sabha. The National Front managed to secure a simple majority in the Lok Sabha and formed the government with the outside support of the Left Front and the BJP. Janata Dal, National Front's largest constituent, won 143 seats with CPI-M and CPI securing 33 and 12 respectively. Independents and other smaller parties managed to win 59 seats.

However, the Congress was still the single largest party in the Lok Sabha with 197 MPs. The BJP was the biggest gainer in the elections increasing its tally to 85 MPs from just two in the 1984 elections. Singh became the 10th Prime Minister of India with Devi Lal as the Deputy Prime minister. He held office from December 2, 1989, to November 10, 1990. After BJP leader L K Advani started the Rath Yatra on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue and was arrested in Bihar by state chief minister Lalu Yadav, the party withdrew support to the VP Singh government. Singh resigned after losing the trust vote.

Chandra Shekhar broke away from the Janata Dal with 64 MPs and formed the Samajwadi Janata Party. He got outside support from the Congress and became the 11th Prime Minister of India. He finally resigned on March 6, 1991, after the Congress alleged that the government was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.

Dates: 02/12/1989-13/03/1991

Speaker Shri Rabi Ray 19/12/1989 -9/7/1991 Deputy Speaker Shri Shivraj Patil 19/3/1990 -13/3/1991 Secretary-General Dr.Subhash C.Kashyap 02/12/1989-20/08/1990 Shri K.C. Rastogi 21/08/1990-13/03/1991