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General elections were held in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
on 22 and 26 November 1989 to elect the members of the ninth
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
. The incumbent
Indian National Congress (Indira) The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
government under the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi lost its mandate, even though it was still the largest single party in the Lok Sabha. 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. The government was formed with outside support from the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
and Communist parties led by CPI(M). V. P. Singh was sworn in as the seventh
Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...
on 2 December 1989.


Background

The 1989 elections were held after the Lok Sabha elected in 1984 completed its five-year term. Although Rajiv Gandhi had won the 1984 elections by an unprecedented landslide (mainly due to an overwhelming outpour of popular grief for to his mother's assassination), by 1989 he was trying to fight off scandals that had marred his administration. The Bofors scandal, Gandhi's supposed attempt at shielding Adil Shahryar, who had been involved in the 1984 Bhopal tragedy, allegations of Muslim appeasement in the wake of the Shah Bano case, rising insurgency in Assam, insurrection in Punjab, Indian involvement in the Sri Lankan civil war were just some of the problems that stared at his government. Rajiv's biggest critic was Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who 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 Jana Morcha with Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan and re-entered the Lok Sabha as an Independent MP from
Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...
. Witnessing V. P. Singh's meteoric rise on national stage, Rajiv tried to counter him with another prominent Rajput stalwart Satyendra Narain Singh but failed eventually. On 11 October 1988, the birth anniversary of Jayprakasha Narayan, V. P Singh made Jana Morcha merge with the Janata Party & some of its breakaway factions like the Janata Party (Secular),
Lok Dal Lokdal or Lok Dal is an Indian political party based on agriculture policies, founded by former Prime Minister Charan Singh. It was founded on 26 September 1979 by merging Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party (Limaye) and Orissa Janata Party ...
& Congress (Jagjivan) to form the Janata Dal. Singh then formed the National Front consisting of the Janata Dal, Congress (Socialist) of Sarat Chandra Sinha, TDP of N. T. Rama Rao, DMK of M. Karunanidhi & AGP of Prafulla Mahanta. The National Front also received outside support of Lal Krishna Advani from the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
(which had also been formed out of the Janata Party) & Jyoti Basu from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). To remove the allegations of Muslim appeasement against the Congress (I) party, Rajiv Gandhi took the step of unlocking the gates of the disputed Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1986, which inadvertently caused increased public consciousness about the dispute over the site. The BJP was able to galvanize significant support from the country's Hindu majority towards itself by its electoral promise of constructing a
Hindu temple A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to Hindu deities, deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to who ...
at the site after tearing down the mosque. Voting was not held in Assam due to rising unrest and a rebellion of Bodos, culminating into a massacre of 535 people at Gohpur. The Union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu was split into Goa and Daman & Diu with Goa retaining its two seats and the latter gaining a seat, resulting in the total number of Lok Sabha seats increasing by one to a total of 543. As elections were not held in Assam, only 529 seats were contested.


Results


Aftermath

V. P. Singh, who was the head of the Janata Dal, was chosen leader of the National Front government with outside support of the BJP & CPI(M). The alliance broke down after Singh supported Bihar's Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's step to arrest Advani in Samastipur to stop his Ram Rath Yatra, which was going to the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya on 23 October 1990. Following this incident, BJP withdrew their support to Singh government, causing them to lose parliamentary vote of confidence on 7 November 1990. 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(I) and became the 8th Prime Minister of India. He finally resigned on 21 June 1991, after the Congress(I) withdrew its support alleging that the Chandra Shekhar government was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.


See also

* V. P. Singh ministry * Chandra Shekhar ministry * List of members of the 9th Lok Sabha * Election Commission of India * 1987 Indian presidential election


References


Bibliography

*


External links

* * {{Indian elections
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
General elections in India