Vajpayee II cabinet
The Vajpayee II cabinet was formed in India on March 19, 1998 by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It replaced the Gujral cabinet and remained in office until October 13, 1999, after which it was replaced by the Vajpayee III cabinet .
From the parliamentary elections on February 16, 22, 23 and 28, and on March 7, 1998 , there was a neck and neck race between the Indian National Congress (INC), which received 25.82 percent, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to 25.59 percent. Because of the electoral law, the BJP became the strongest force and got 182 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha , while the INC had 141 seats. The main loser of the election was Janata Dal (JD) of the previous Prime Minister Gujral, who lost 40 seats and only had six members. After the election, Atal Bihar Vajpayee of the BJP formed his second cabinet, which was made up of ministers from BJP, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Samata Party (SAP), Shiromani Akali Dali (SAD), Lok Shakti (LS), the Shiv Sena (SHS) and Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress (TRC) passed.
In the parliamentary elections that followed, between September 5 and October 4, 1999 , the INC received around 16 million votes more than the BJP, but lost 27 seats because of the electoral law and only had 114 of 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Despite slight losses, the BJP still had 182 members. The third strongest force was the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)), which had 33 parliamentarians. Vajpayee then formed a new coalition government.
minister
The Cabinet consisted of the following ministers:
Office | Surname | Political party | Beginning of the term of office | Term expires |
---|---|---|---|---|
prime minister | Atal Behari Vajpayee | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister of Agriculture | Atal Behari Vajpayee | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Foreign minister | Atal Behari Vajpayee Jaswant Singh |
BJP BJP |
March 19, 1998 December 5, 1998 |
December 5, 1998 October 13, 1999 |
Interior minister | Lal Krishna Advani | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Industry Minister | Sikander Bakht | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers | Surjit Singh Barnala | SAD | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Law, Justice and Corporate Affairs |
M. Thambidurai Rangarajan Kumaramangalam Ram Jethmalani |
AIADMK BJP BJP |
March 19, 1998 April 5, 1999 June 8, 1999 |
April 5, 1999 June 8, 1999 October 13, 1999 |
Defense Minister | George Fernandes | SAP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister of Commerce | Ramakrishna Hegde | LS | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister of Labor | Satyanarayan JatiyaBakht | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Urban Development | Ram Jethmalani Jagmohan |
Non-party BJP |
March 19, 1998 June 8, 1999 |
June 8, 1999 October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Human Resource Development | Murli Manohar JoshiBakht | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs | Madan Lal Khurana | BJP | March 19, 1998 | January 31, 1999 |
Energy minister | Rangarajan Kumaramangalam | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Railway Minister | Nitish Kumar | SAP | March 19, 1998 | August 3, 1999 |
Minister for Civil Aviation | Ananth Kumar | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Steel and Mining | Naveen Patnaik | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Environment and Forests | Suresh Prabhu | SHS | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas | Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy | TRC | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Textiles | Kashiram Rana | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Communications minister |
Buta Singh Jagmohan Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
Non-party BJP BJP |
March 19, 1998 December 5, 1998 June 8, 1999 |
April 20, 1998 June 8, 1999 October 13, 1999 |
Finance minister | Yashwant Sinha | BJP | March 19, 1998 | October 13, 1999 |
Minister for Information and Broadcasting |
Sushma Swaraj Pramod Mahajan |
BJP BJP |
March 19, 1998 December 5, 1998 |
December 5, 1998 October 13, 1999 |
Transport Minister |
Sedapatti Muthiah M. Thambidurai Nitish Kumar Jaswant Singh |
AIADMK AIADMK SAP BJP |
March 19, 1998 April 8, 1998 April 5, 1999 June 8, 1999 |
April 8, 1998 April 5, 1999 June 8, 1999 October 13, 1999 |
Web links
- All Members of Lok Sabha (Since 1952): Members Biographical Sketches on the Lok Sabha homepage
- RAJYA SABHA MEMBERS: BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 1952 - 2003 on the homepage of Rajya Sabha
- COUNCIL OF MINISTER VAJPAYEE 19.3.1998 - 13.10.1999
- Gopa Sabharwal: India Since 1947: The Independent Years , Penguin UK, 2007, ISBN 9-35214-089-3
- India: Key Ministers (rulers.org)