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India - Politics

In 1991, when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support, Janata Dal split and the Lok Sabha was dissolved in March 1991, to prepare for a general election. While campaigning, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a member of an extremist faction supporting the Tamil guerrillas in Sri Lanka. In the elections Congress (I) party took 227 seats and its new leader Narasimha Rao formed a minority government, the BJP winning 119 seats and Janata Dal only 55.

The Rao administration introduced economic reforms and turned the economy around, but failed to win an overall majority in the 1996 elections. The BJP and its allies won 186 seats, Congress (I) 136 and a loose alliance of left-wing parties 179 seats. The BJP formed a minority government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but this proved too fragile to last and the country was then governed by a coalition of 13, and later 15 parties, with Deve Gowda and then I K Gujral as prime minister, with the support of Congress (I) which was wracked by defections and splits following its election defeat. By late 1997 the coalition had lost its majority and an early general election was called.

But in the February/March 1998 general election again no party emerged with a clear majority. Of the total of 545 seats, BJP took 179, Congress (I) 141 and Communist Party of India (Marxist) 32. The BJP-led coalition controlled 252 seats (21 short of an absolute majority), Congress (I) 165, United Front (including the Communist Party of India) 97, and other non-aligned parties and independents 25. It was two weeks before Vajpayee of the BJP was able to form a coalition government comprising at least 12 parties and independent members and finally commanding a majority in an early vote of confidence of 274:261 votes.

There followed a year in which the government was faced with continuing difficulty in keeping its coalition together, despite continuing strong economic growth and the popularity of nuclear tests in 1998, and after the BJP’s largest coalition partner, the Tamil Nadu-based All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), withdrew from the government, in April 1999 the government lost its majority. Following an unsuccessful attempt by Congress (I) – now led by Rajiv’s widow, Sonia Gandhi – to form a coalition, President K R Narayanan dissolved the Lok Sabha and asked Vajpayee to head a caretaker government until a complete round of new elections could be held in September and October 1999.

Victory for the Indian armed forces in Kashmir in July 1999 formed the backdrop for the BJP’s formation of a national political alliance, the 24-party National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which issued its manifesto in August 1999. Thus the BJP’s alliance with AIADMK was replaced by a series of agreements with strong regional parties, including a breakaway from Congress in West Bengal and a strong rival to Congress in Andhra Pradesh. Such alliances diluted the Hindu militancy with which the BJP was formerly associated. The final results of the 1999 elections gave the NDA a solid majority with 295 seats, though BJP’s own total of 182 seats had hardly increased. However, Congress (I) took only 115 seats. The 1999 elections were the first since 1984 when a pre-election alliance managed to secure a clear majority in parliament.

The year 2002 saw escalating intercommunal violence in parts of India, and higher levels of tension between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, especially in May 2002 when India mobilised a vast army along the Line of Control and the two countries were on the brink of war. Tension eased considerably in October 2002 when India reduced its number of troops along the Line of Control; diplomatic relations were restored in August 2003 and a ceasefire along the Line of Control was agreed and took effect from 26 November 2003.

In an early election, the first using electronic voting machines, held over four days in April/May 2004, the coalition – United Progressive Alliance (UPA) – led by Indian National Congress (INC) emerged, with 217 seats, ahead of the ruling NDA (185 seats). However, INC leader, Sonia Gandhi, decided not to accept the prime ministership and Dr Manmohan Singh, a former finance minister who had overseen the economic reform programme in the early 1990s, was chosen by INC to form the new government. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), with 43 seats, joined INC to provide the necessary majority in taking the new agenda forward.

Peace talks between India and Pakistan began in 2004, marking a historic move in relations between the two countries. The talks led to the restoration of communication links and a range of confidence-building measures, including co-ordinated relief efforts in the aftermath of the October 2005 earthquake. However, at the start of 2007, the two sides were yet to commence substantive discussions on political issues.

The July 2007 presidential election was won by Pratibha Patil of the INC, who was the nominee of UPA and first woman to become president. She defeated BJP’s candidate, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, in the electoral college vote to succeed Dr Abdul Kalam.

Following withdrawal of support from a key coalition partner, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), over its nuclear deal with the United States, the UPA coalition government faced a vote of confidence in July 2008. The Government survived the vote of confidence securing 275 votes largely due to the support of a non-coalition member, the Samajwadi Party; opponents secured 256 votes and 11 members abstained.