Parliamentary election in India in 1989
The parliamentary elections in India in 1989 took place on November 22nd and 26th, 1989. 529 members of the Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha, were elected . The previously ruling Congress Party under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi lost almost 10% of the vote and an absolute majority of the parliamentary seats compared to the last election. As a result of the election, a government was formed under the leadership of Janata Dal , who had been founded only a year earlier .
The 1989 election marked the beginning of a period of relative instability in Indian party politics. For the first time, despite the majority vote, none of the parties succeeded in gaining an absolute majority in parliament. This continued in the subsequent elections. The vote share of the Congress party tended to decrease and on the other hand there was an increasing fragmentation of the party spectrum, which in total led to unstable governments. In the 11 years from 1989 to 1999 there were therefore a total of five parliamentary elections.
prehistory
Punjab hot spot
In the previous election in 1984 , Rajiv Gandhi was confirmed as Prime Minister by an impressive majority. However, he had inherited a difficult legacy from his mother, Indira Gandhi. After Indira was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, pogrom-like riots against Sikhs took place across the country, in particular in Delhi, killing several thousand people. Rajiv Gandhi was later blamed for not having timely and vigorously halted the violence as the newly appointed new Prime Minister. The Indian President Zail Singh , himself a Sikh, was deeply disappointed by Gandhi's inaction, which permanently shattered the relationship between Prime Minister and President. The instigators and perpetrators of the massacres of the Sikhs were also only inadequately prosecuted. These events, together with the previous bloody storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar , led to a wave of terrorist actions by militant Sikhs against Indian institutions or against Hindus in general, which resulted in hundreds of deaths in the years to come. On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 fell victim to a bomb attack by Sikh terrorists that killed 329 people. The Indian central government responded with police and military measures. The Golden Temple, in which Sikh terrorists had repeatedly holed up, was occupied twice by Indian special forces ( Operation Black Thunder I on April 30, 1986 and Operation Black Thunder II from May 9 to 18, 1988), this time with a relatively small number of people Loss of life and little damage to the temple.
On July 24, 1985, was between Rajiv Gandhi and the Sikh leaders and President Shiromani Akali Dal Harchand Singh Longowal an agreement concluded, which had an end to the violence to the goal. In essence, this agreement provided a political amnesty for Sikh leaders and the prosecution of those who participated in the 1984 riots against Sikhs . Damaged Sikhs should be compensated financially. Punjabi should have a higher status as a language. The city of Chandigarh , previously a union territory and capital of two states, was to be completely incorporated into the Punjab. Haryana was to be compensated for this with the incorporation of Hindi-speaking areas of Punjab. The agreement was rejected by radical Sikhs and ultimately did not come into force as a package. On August 20, 1985, Longowal was murdered by radical Sikhs. One day before the planned official surrender of Chandigarh on January 26, 1986, after all preparations for the celebrations had been made by the Punjab government, Rajiv Gandhi's government announced that this action would be postponed indefinitely. Rajiv Gandhi reacted to pressure from the government of Haryana, which felt that it had been cheated, but disavowed moderate Sikh politicians like Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala . The death toll from Sikh-related violence and terrorist acts continued to increase, from 64 in 1985, 620 in 1986, 838 in 1987, 2,329 in 1988 and more than 1,700 in 1989. Since 1987 stood the Punjab under president's rule . The situation in Punjab only calmed down under the government of PV Narasimha Rao in 1991.
Trouble spots Assam and Kashmir
The unrest that broke out in 1979 between Assamese and immigrant Bengali continued in northeast Assam . In addition, there were unrest and aspirations for autonomy in Bodoland , a strategically important region in Assam at the junction between West Bengal and Assam. After the 1987 elections to the parliaments of Jammu and Kashmir , won by Farooq Abdullah in alliance with the Congress Party, massive allegations of election fraud were raised. In 1989 this culminated in militant resistance that was increasingly supported by Islamist groups such as former mujahideen from nearby Afghanistan and also supported by neighboring Pakistan.
Civil War in Sri Lanka
In neighboring Sri Lanka , militant associations had been formed since the 1970s to agitate against the suppression of the Tamil minority by the Sinhalese majority population. The best-known organization was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, Tamil Tigers ). On July 23, 1983, the Tamil Tigers raided a Sri Lankan military base near Thirunelveli in Jaffna District , killing 13 soldiers. This was the beacon that sparked the civil war in Sri Lanka . Rioting against Tamils erupted across the island, killing hundreds to thousands of people. In the years that followed, both the regular Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers carried out repeated massacres of civilians. The Tamil Tigers were inferior to the army in their weapons equipment and increasingly concentrated on the perpetration of suicide attacks . Some of the Tamil fighters in Sri Lanka received open support from the Tamils in India. When it appeared that the Tamil Tigers would be defeated by the Sri Lankan Army, Indian Air Force planes dropped supplies over the area held by the Tigers in June 1987 . Through Indian mediation, an agreement was reached between the rebels and the Sri Lankan government on July 29, 1987. In it the Tamils were made concessions regarding the autonomy and equality of the Tamil language. The rebels should agree to a disarmament. To ensure the implementation of this agreement, units of the Indian Army (the Indian Peace Keeping Force , IPKF) were stationed in the north and east of the island. Most militant Tamil organizations agreed to disarm, but not the LTTE, so the IPKF quickly got into an armed conflict with the Tamil Tigers . Despite increasing criticism of the actions of the IPKF, which were also accused of human rights violations, and of the high costs of the action, Rajiv Gandhi insisted on further stationing Indian troops in Sri Lanka.
Corruption scandals, founding of Janata Dal
When he took office in 1984, the then 40-year-old Rajiv Gandhi still had the image of a fresh politician who was not burdened by corruption scandals. That reputation was at least damaged in the election year 1989. The Bofors scandal was primarily responsible for this. The Indian government had ordered armaments worth US $ 285 million from the Swedish company Bofors . A search of the Bofors offices by the Swedish police in a different context brought to light documents relating to bank transfers to Switzerland. The names of the recipients were blackened out on the documents. Copies of the documents were given to the Indian daily The Hindu by a whistleblower . Accusations quickly emerged that Bofors had paid bribes for the award of the contract. The Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi was involved as a middleman for the armaments business, which was explosive insofar as Rajiv Gandhi's wife Sonia was born in Italy. Ultimately, no wrongdoing was found for Rajiv Gandhi and the investigation was closed after his death and he himself was acquitted posthumously. The Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel, which had signed a contract for the delivery or construction of four class 209 submarines in 1981 , were also suspected of paying bribes for the award of the contract. However, no such activities could be detected in HDW. In the Indian public, however, the impression of a massively corrupt political caste made itself wide.
Defense Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh , who had not been involved in the arms business himself, as he had been finance minister until 1987, became a critic of government policy . When details about possible bribe payments leaked to the public, Singh resigned from his ministerial post on April 24 and shortly afterwards gave up his parliamentary seat and was expelled from the Congress party. Together with Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan , two other dissidents from the Congress Party, he founded the Jan Morcha party (“Popular Front”). In a by-election in the Allahabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Singh was re-elected to the Lok Sabha. Symbolically, on October 11, 1988, the birthday of Jayaprakash Narayan , the tireless adversary of Indira Gandhi and the spiritus rector of the Janata Party , the Jan Morcha united with most of the Janata Party and most of the Lok Dal to form a new one Party, Janata Dal ("People's Party"), whose first President Singh became. Smaller fractions of the Janata Party and the Lok Dal refused to join forces and remained independent, but could not gain any significant political weight in the further course. The claim of the Janata Dal already seemed clear because of the founding date: the aim was to repeat the great success of the Janata Party from 1977 .
Election campaign
The following groups faced each other in the election campaign:
- the so-called National Front , which in addition to the Janata Dal also included the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and Asom Gana Parishad in Assam,
- the Congress Party under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi with its traditional allies Muslim League and Kerala Congress , as well as the National Conference under Farooq Abdullah in Jammu and Kashmir and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu
- the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with which the Janata Dal had constituency agreements
- the communist and left-wing socialist parties
During the election campaign, the Janata Dal called for a decisive fight against corruption. Congress, on the other hand, stressed the need for stable government.
Election mode
As in all previous parliamentary elections, the election was based on the relative majority vote in individual constituencies. The constituency boundaries had been set by the Delimitation Commission of India prior to the 1977 election based on the 1971 census. The number of constituencies had increased by one since the previous election to a total of 543, since in 1987 the Union territory of Daman and Diu had been newly formed. It had previously been combined with Goa , which had received state status in 1987. Daman and Diu received an additional constituency. In the 14 constituencies of Assam , due to the persistent ethnic unrest there , no elections could be held again (as in 1984 and 1980 ), so that a total of 529 instead of 543 parliamentarians were elected.
The nationwide voter turnout was very different. At only 25.7% it was extremely low in Jammu and Kashmir, which was probably due on the one hand to the disappointment about the previous allegedly "falsified" elections to the Kashmiri parliament in 1987, and on the other hand to the uneasy political situation due to increased activity by separatists, who had called for an election boycott.
State or Union Territory |
electoral legitimate |
Voters | electoral participation |
Invalid votes |
Number of polling stations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Andhra Pradesh | 42.475.179 | 29,916,616 | 70.43% | 3.85% | 49,782 |
Arunachal Pradesh | 476.051 | 281,665 | 59.17% | 3.03% | 1,529 |
Bihar | 52.193.269 | 31,441,378 | 60.24% | 1.87% | 63,742 |
Goa | 734.315 | 427.065 | 58.16% | 2.20% | 1.009 |
Gujarat | 24.334.172 | 13281.560 | 54.58% | 2.55% | 27,760 |
Haryana | 9,636,688 | 6,207,111 | 64.41% | 1.66% | 12,733 |
Himachal Pradesh | 2,983,359 | 1,907,725 | 63.95% | 1.35% | 4,677 |
Jammu and Kashmir | 4,155,297 | 1,066,879 | 25.68% | 1.95% | 6.002 |
Karnataka | 28,611,444 | 19,320,008 | 67.53% | 4.64% | 36,361 |
Kerala | 18,924,136 | 15.007.250 | 79.30% | 0.63% | 18.801 |
Madhya Pradesh | 36,890,694 | 20.368.256 | 55.21% | 3.41% | 43,617 |
Maharashtra | 47.205.941 | 28,256,668 | 59.86% | 2.50% | 54.202 |
Manipur | 1,219,514 | 875.158 | 71.76% | 1.60% | 1,749 |
Meghalaya | 937.860 | 486.967 | 51.92% | 2.02% | 1,404 |
Mizoram | 391,700 | 228.202 | 58.26% | 0.90% | 661 |
Nagaland | 813.011 | 607.429 | 74.71% | 0.86% | 1,308 |
Orissa | 19,440,758 | 11,523,099 | 59.27% | 2.88% | 24,035 |
Punjab | 12,948,035 | 8,114,095 | 62.67% | 2.11% | 14,634 |
Rajasthan | 25,814,515 | 14,594,160 | 56.53% | 2.06% | 30,701 |
Sikkim | 192.619 | 138,698 | 72.01% | 3.60% | 261 |
Tamil Nadu | 40,027,212 | 26,763,788 | 66.86% | 1.36% | 43,195 |
Tripura | 1,536,550 | 1,288,985 | 83.89% | 1.73% | 1.934 |
Uttar Pradesh | 79.615.094 | 40.815.295 | 51.27% | 4.42% | 83,691 |
West Bengal | 40,414,761 | 32.200.171 | 79.67% | 1.68% | 49,146 |
Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 160,940 | 115.403 | 71.71% | 2.03% | 280 |
Chandigarh | 334,522 | 219,697 | 65.67% | 1.27% | 374 |
Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 74,320 | 54,200 | 72.93% | 4.06% | 92 |
Daman and Diu | 56,719 | 37,451 | 66.03% | 2.44% | 57 |
Delhi | 5,702,828 | 3,096,655 | 54.30% | 1.59% | 6.334 |
Lakshadweep | 30,069 | 25,555 | 84.99% | 0.25% | 37 |
Pondicherry | 574,557 | 383.306 | 66.71% | 1.49% | 690 |
total | 498.906.129 | 309.050.495 | 61.95% | 2.68% | 580.798 |
Results
Overall result
From the perspective of the Congress Party, the election result was a clear defeat. Compared to the election five years ago, it had almost 10% of the vote, and what was even more serious, it lost more than half of the parliamentary seats and thus an absolute majority. With 197 MPs (37.2%) it remained by far the largest party. The opposition had gained accordingly. The newly founded Janata Dal (JD) came up with 17.79% and, thanks to the majority vote and clever constituency agreements, 143 seats (27.0%). Judging by the election results of its founding parties (Janata Party and Lok Dal) in 1984, however, it gained only a relatively small number of votes (+ 3.16%), but very significantly in terms of mandates (+131). The performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was remarkable, with 11.36% of the vote and 85 seats (16.1%). The other two parties of the JD-led National Front , Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), performed poorly, the TDP only won two seats, the DMK none at all. The left-wing parties CPM , CPI , RSP and AIFB were able to increase their share of the vote a little and together got 10.16% of the vote and 52 seats (9.82%). In West Bengal , the left-wing parties were able to consolidate their dominant position.
In some respects the election result was similar to the 1977 election result . The South of India had largely fallen to the Congress Party, while the North, the Hindi belt, had predominantly elected the opposition, only that this did not consist of one party, as in 1977, but of two, JD and BJP.
Political party | Abbreviation | be right | Seats | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
number | % | +/- | number | +/- | % | ||
Indian National Congress | INC | 118.894.702 | 39.53% | 9.67% | 197 | 207 | 37.2% |
Janata Dal | JD | 53,518,521 | 17.79% | (New) | 143 | (New) | 27.0% |
Bharatiya Janata Party | BJP | 34,171,477 | 11.36% | 3.62% | 85 | 83 | 16.1% |
Communist Party of India (Marxist) | CPM | 19.691.309 | 6.55% | 0.37% | 33 | 11 | 6.2% |
Telugu Desam Party | TDP | 9,909,728 | 3.29% | 1.02% | 2 | 28 | 0.4% |
Communist Party of India | CPI | 7,734,697 | 2.57% | 0.14% | 12 | 6 | 2.3% |
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | DMK | 7,196,099 | 2.39% | 0.03% | 0 | 2 | 0.0% |
Bahujan Samaj Party | E.G | 6,213,390 | 2.07% | (New) | 3 | (New) | 0.0% |
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | AIADMK | 4,518,649 | 1.50% | 0.19% | 11 | 1 | 2.3% |
Janata Party (JP) | JNP (JP) | 3,029,743 | 1.01% | (New) | 0 | (New) | 0.0% |
Revolutionary Socialist Party | RSP | 1,854,276 | 0.62% | 0.12% | 4th | 1 | 0.8% |
Pattali Makkal Katchi | PMK | 1,561,371 | 0.52% | (New) | 0 | (New) | 0.0% |
Doordarshi party | DDP | 1,338,566 | 0.45% | 0.23% | 0 | 0.0% | |
All India Forward Bloc | AIFB | 1,261,310 | 0.42% | 0.03% | 3 | 1 | 0.6% |
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha | JMM | 1,032,276 | 0.34% | 0.20% | 3 | 3 | 0.6% |
Indian Congress (Socialist) - Sarat Chandra Sinha | ICS (SCS) | 978.377 | 0.33% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Muslim League | MUL | 974.234 | 0.32% | 0.04% | 2 | 0.4% | |
Indian People's Front | IPF | 737.551 | 0.25% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslims | AIMIM | 617.376 | 0.21% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Peasants and Workers Party of India | PWP | 636.589 | 0.21% | 0.01% | 0 | 0.0% | |
Lok Dal (Bahuguna) | LKD (B) | 602.110 | 0.20% | (New) | 0 | (New) | 0.0% |
Gorkha National Liberation Front | GNLF | 435.070 | 0.14% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Kerala Congress (M) | KEC (M) | 352.191 | 0.12% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Marxist Coordination Committee | MCC | 247.013 | 0.08% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha | ABHM | 217,514 | 0.07% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party | MGP | 116.392 | 0.04% | 1 | 1 | 0.2% | |
Sikkim Sagram Parishad | SSP | 91,608 | 0.03% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference | JKNC | 71.194 | 0.02% | 0.41% | 3 | 0.6% | |
Independent | Independent | 15,793,781 | 5.25% | 2.67% | 12 | 7 | 2.3% |
All other parties | 2,100,440 | 0.89% | 0.68% | 0 | 6 | 0% | |
Valid votes | 300.776.423 | 100.0% | 529 | 15 | 100.0% | ||
Registered voters / turnout | 498.906.129 | 61.95% | |||||
Source: Election Commission of India |
- ↑ a b Regarding the number of seats won and lost, it should be noted that nationwide elections were only held in 529 of the 543 constituencies. In the last election in 1984, 514 of 542 constituencies were elected.
- ↑ a b Janata Dal was founded in 1988.
Result by state and union territories
The following table lists the electoral districts won by state / union territory.
State | Seats | Congress party |
Janata Dal and National Front |
Communist / left soc. Parties |
Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 1 | INC 1 | |||
Andhra Pradesh | 42 | INC 39 | TDP 2 | AIMIM 1 | |
Arunachal Pradesh | 2 | INC 2 | |||
Bihar | 54 | INC 4 | JD 32 |
CPI 4 CPM 1 IPF 1 MCC 1 |
BJP 8 JMM 3 |
Chandigarh | 1 | JD 1 | |||
Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 1 | Independent 1 | |||
Daman and Diu | 1 | Independent 1 | |||
Delhi | 7th | INC 2 | JD 1 | BJP 4 | |
Goa | 2 | INC 1 | MGP 1 | ||
Gujarat | 26th | INC 3 | JD 11 | BJP 12 | |
Haryana | 10 | INC 4 | JD 6 | ||
Himachal Pradesh | 4th | INC 1 | BJP 3 | ||
Jammu and Kashmir | 6th | INC 2 | JKNC 3 | Independent 1 | |
Karnataka | 28 | INC 27 | JD 1 | ||
Kerala | 20th | INC 14 | CPM 2 |
ICS (SCS) 1 MUL 2 KEC (M) 1 |
|
Lakshadweep | 1 | INC 1 | |||
Madhya Pradesh | 40 | INC 8 | JD 4 |
BJP 27 Independent 1 |
|
Maharashtra | 48 | INC 28 | JD 5 | CPI 1 |
BJP 10 SHS 1 Independent 3 |
Manipur | 2 | INC 2 | |||
Meghalaya | 2 | INC 2 | |||
Mizoram | 1 | INC 1 | |||
Nagaland | 1 | INC 1 | |||
Orissa | 21st | INC 3 | JD 16 |
CPM 1 CPI 1 |
|
Pondicherry | 1 | INC 1 | |||
Punjab | 13 | INC 2 | JD 1 |
SAD 6 BSP 1 Independent 3 |
|
Rajasthan | 25th | INC 25 | JD 11 | CPM 1 | BJP 13 |
Sikkim | 1 | SSP 1 | |||
Tamil Nadu | 39 | INC 27 | CPI 1 | AIADMK 11 | |
Tripura | 2 | INC 2 | |||
Uttar Pradesh | 85 | INC 15 | JD 54 |
CPI 2 CPM 1 |
BJP 8 BSP 2 ABHM 1 Independent 2 |
West Bengal | 42 | INC 4 |
CPM 27 CPI 3 RSP 4 AIFB 3 |
GNLF 1 |
After the election
Since no party had won an absolute majority of the parliamentary seats, alliance negotiations took place after the election. Rajiv Gandhi failed to win a majority of the MPs for the formation of a party-led government. Therefore, President R. Venkataraman assigned VP Singh to form a government. On December 2, 1989, Singh presented his coalition cabinet . The government relied on the support of parties that were not part of the government. This included the BJP on the one hand and the communist parties on the other. It was the first minority government in Indian history.
Web links and literature
- Jakob Rösel: Rise and Fall of Congress Rule: The Development of the Political System of India. In: The citizen in the state. 48 (1998), No. 1, ISSN 0007-3121 , pp. 37-45 (full text)
- Rise and fall of VP Singh - General Elections 1989 - Emergence of caste politics on a large scale. Brief description of the events on: primepoint.in
- Ranbir Vohra: The Making of India - A Political History. 3rd edition 2013, ME Sharpe, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7656-2367-6 . (Paperback), a brief summary of recent Indian history
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on December 22, 2018 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence).
- ↑ Reuters: President Says Gandhi Ignored Him on Key Issues: Letter Reveals Friction Between Indian Leaders. In: Los Angeles Times. March 14, 1987, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ^ Sanjoy Hazarika: 34 Hindus killed in new bus raids; Sikhs suspected. In: The New York Times. July 8, 1987, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ SIKH EXTREMISTS HIJACK PUNJAB BUS AND KILL 24 PEOPLE. In: The New York Times. December 1, 1986, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Barara Crossette: In Punjab, Sikh Turns Against Sikh. In: The New York Times. March 25, 1988, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Martha Crenshaw (Ed.): Terrorism in Context. Penn State University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-271-01015-0 , p. 398.
- ^ Rajiv-Longowal Memorandum of Settlement (Accord), July 24, 1985. The Sikh Times, accessed November 8, 2014 .
- ^ Ranbir Vohra: The Making of India: A Political History. Chapter: Independent India: The Search for National Identity. Subchapter: Punjab. ME Sharpe - Verlag, revised edition January 15, 2013, ISBN 0-7656-2367-6
- ^ Richard Sisson: India in 1989. A Year of Elections in a Culture of Change. In: Asian Survey. Vol. 30, No. 2, A Survey of Asia in 1989: Part II (Feb., 1990), pp. 111-125 JSTOR 2644889 .
- ↑ Kashmir insurgency. In: BBC News. Retrieved October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Altaf Hussain: Kashmir's flawed elections. In: BBC News. September 14, 2002, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ^ Steven R. Weisman: India airlifts aid to Tamil rebels. In: The New York Times. June 5, 1987, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ^ Chitra Subramaniam-Duella: The Bofors story, 25 years after. TheHoot.org, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Sandeep Unnithan: Back with a bang: Bofors and HDW scandals back in reckoning for new defense deals. indiatoday, May 16, 2005, accessed November 4, 2014 .
- ↑ S 44 Shishumar class. globalsecurity.org, accessed November 4, 2014 .
- ↑ Steven R. Weisman: Is the Raja Ready for War, or Losing His Steam? In: The New York Times. October 8, 1987, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Steven R. Weisman: Gandhi Is Finding Out Fast How Much He Had to Lose. In: The New York Times. July 3, 1987, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ^ Sanjoy Hazarika: United Opposition Confronts Ghandi. In: The New York Times. November 24, 1989, accessed October 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Urmila Phadnis, Rajat Ganguly: Ethnicity and Nation-Building in South Asia. Sage Publication, 2001, ISBN 0-7619-9439-4 . P. 120, Google digitized version
- ↑ see also en: Indian general election, 1989 # Fight for Prime Ministership