General election in India 1999
The parliamentary elections in India in 1999 took place on a total of 6 days between September 5th and October 4th 1999. It was the third general election in India in the last three and a half years . It ended with an election victory of the party coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the incumbent Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee .
prehistory
On April 17, 1999, the BJP-led coalition government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee , which had only been in office for 13 months, lost a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha with only one vote (279 to 280). The immediate trigger for Vajpayee to put the vote of confidence was the withdrawal of the Tamil regional party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) from the government. The coalition government formed after the 1998 election relied on the votes of the 18 AIADMK MPs in the Lok Sabha, and therefore AIADMK party leader J. Jayalalithaa had set conditions for support. In addition to certain ministerial posts for the AIADMK, as well as personnel issues, this also included the demand for the dismissal of the incumbent government of the state of Tamil Nadu , which was formed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) since the 1996 elections . The latter, however, was rejected by the BJP, arguing that J. Jayalalithaa wanted to avoid a corruption charge due to her tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu 1991-1996. The leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party , Mayawati , had also stated the night before the vote that the five MPs of her party wanted to vote against the government of Vajpayee, as it was "anti- Dalit ". Saifuddin Soz, a member of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference , a party in the ruling coalition, had also announced that he would vote against the government.
After the vote was lost, the leader of the Congress Party faction in the Lok Sabha, Sharad Pawar , called on the Prime Minister to resign and announced that the Congress Party would try to form a coalition government. In the days that followed, however, it became apparent that the Congress Party was unable to unite a sufficient number of parties in a common alliance to form a majority for a new government. As a result, President KR Narayanan announced on April 26, 1999 the dissolution of Lok Sabha and the call for new elections. The date for the new election was set for September and October of the same year. The Vajpayee government remained executive until the election.
Sonia Gandhi (2006), Chairwoman of the Congress Party Sharad Pawar (2009), leader of the Congress Party faction in the Lok Sabha, later dissident J. Jayalalithaa (2008), leader of the AIADMK
Election campaign and pre-election events
Party politics and coalitions
In 1998 Sonia Gandhi was elected leader of the Congress Party. After the announcement of the new elections, she was nominated by her party as the top candidate for the office of Prime Minister. However, there were strong reservations within the Congress party against the election of a native Italian to chair the largest Indian party. A faction that spoke out against the election of Sonia was led by Sharad Pawar , who had raised his hopes for the office. On May 12, 1999, Sharad Pawar founded a new party with like-minded people, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). A little later, he and his supporters were expelled from the Congress party. The BJP used the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin intensively for its own election campaign purposes.
In the years 1996 to 1999, the Janata Dal , which was still the Prime Minister of India from 1989–1991 and 1996–1998 , quickly disintegrated into smaller parties: in 1998 the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was formed under Lalu Prasad Yadav , and in 1998 Biju Janata Dal (BJD) under Naveen Patnaik , 1999 Janata Dal (United) (JD (U)) under Sharad Yadav , and Janata Dal (Secular) (JD (S)) under HD Deve Gowda . In the election campaign, these so-called Janata parivar parties did not adopt a uniform stance. RJD supported the Congress Party, JD (U) and BJD supported the BJP, and JD (S) was neutral.
The BJP rallied the same coalition of parties ( National Democratic Alliance , NDA) behind it that had supported the old government, with the exception of the AIADMK. The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference under Farooq Abdullah again supported the NDA.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) under NC Naidu did not join the NDA, but stated that it would support the NDA coalition government on individual issues.
The parties of the communist and left socialist spectrum made local electoral agreements within the framework of a Left Front electoral alliance. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) declared that it wanted to support a future Congress Party-led government selectively from the outside.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party conducted their election campaigns at a distance from the BJP and the Congress Party.
Economic policy was also a topic of the election campaign. Since the beginning of the liberalization of the Indian economy under Prime Minister Rao from 1991 to 1996, India's economic growth has accelerated significantly. The Vajpayee government had continued this policy and claimed the economic development that went with it as its success.
Kargil conflict with Pakistan
Relations with neighboring Pakistan had deteriorated after Vajpayee took office. The Pakistani military and political leadership had not forgotten that in the 1970s, Vajpayee, as the leading politician of the Hindu nationalist Jan Sangh, publicly campaigned for the dismantling of Pakistan in individual states and, even as the top politician of the BJP, still held the view that Pakistan had earlier or later will be forced to form a federation with India under Indian hegemony. Vajpayee took a tough stance on the Kashmir issue and claimed all of Kashmir, including the Pakistani part, for India.
Shortly after taking office, Vajpayee, who has long been known as a vehement supporter of Indian nuclear armament, had a total of five underground nuclear tests carried out on May 11 and 31, 1998 in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan. It was the first Indian nuclear tests since the explosion of the first Indian atomic bomb in 1974. The nuclear tests met with fierce criticism from the world public and were justified by Vajpayee with defense purposes. Pakistan accused India of wanting to initiate a nuclear Western armament. Just 15 days after the first Indian test, Pakistan also carried out a total of six underground nuclear weapons tests on May 28 and 30, 1998 in the Charan desert in Balochistan .
In February 1999 Vajpayee undertook a bus trip from Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan and, after negotiations with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, signed the Lahore Declaration on February 21, 1999 , in which both sides committed themselves to peaceful coexistence and to nuclear disarmament.
In May 1999 it was surprisingly known that fighters operating from Pakistan had penetrated the northern Indian part of Kashmir in the Kargil district. To what extent these operations were started with the knowledge of the Pakistani Prime Minister or were based solely on an initiative of the Pakistani military leadership under Chief of Staff Pervez Musharraf , as later claimed by Nawaz Sharif, is still controversial today. Pakistan itself officially denied any involvement until the end of the conflict, even refused to accept the bodies of fallen Pakistani soldiers recovered by the Indian army and officially spoke of "freedom fighters". In fact, these irregulars received massive logistical support from the Pakistani army and regular Pakistani units were also involved in the fighting. After heavy fighting, the Indian army succeeded in pushing the guerrillas and Pakistani army units back across the border. On July 4, 1999, after mediation by US President Bill Clinton , a ceasefire was reached and the fighting ceased a little later.
During the conflict, both sides avoided the term “war” and tried to de-escalate. Indian troops also did not cross the border with Pakistan or the Pakistani part of Kashmir. The military conflict sparked a patriotic solidarity among the Indian public that benefited the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister himself kept a cool head during the crisis and did not allow himself to be carried away into making nationalist remarks or threatening gestures, which increased the international reputation of the Indian government. The Pakistani military leadership unintentionally favored the re-election of Vajpayee by instigating this conflict.
Election process
As in the previous elections, the MPs were elected in 543 individual constituencies. A simple majority was sufficient for the election ( “first pass the post” ), i. H. there were no runoff elections . The constituency boundaries followed the classification established by the Delimitation Commission of India based on the 1971 census in 1976. Since then, the constituency boundaries had remained unchanged, with the only exception that from 1989 onwards a constituency for the new union territory of Daman and Diu had been added. For organizational reasons, the elections took place on different days. However, the schedule announced on July 11, 1999 could not be fully adhered to and the elections in five constituencies ( 17-Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh, 3-Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, 29-Hoshangabad and 31-Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, 2-Manipur Outer in Manipur) had to be postponed.
Ultimately, the following election dates were realized in the states and union territories :
- September 4, 1999: Goa , Gujarat , Haryana , Punjab , Dadra and Nagar Haveli , Daman and Diu , Andamans and Nicobars , Chandigarh , Delhi , Lakshadweep , Karnataka , Maharashtra , Rajasthan , Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir
- September 11, 1999: Kerala , Pondicherry , Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh
- September 18, 1999: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar , Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
- September 24, 1999: Himachal Pradesh , Mizoram , Nagaland , Manipur , Orissa , Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
- October 3, 1999: Arunachal Pradesh , Assam , Meghalaya , Sikkim , Tripura , West Bengal , Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
- October 4, 1999: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur
The votes were counted between October 6th and 10th.
For the first time in a national Indian election in large scale electronic were voting machines ( electronic voting machines , EVM) used in a kind of test phase. They have been used in at least 45 constituencies across 17 states.
The total cost of the election were 196.4 million US $ (8.8 billion rupees estimated).
State or Union Territory |
electoral legitimate |
Voters | electoral participation |
Invalid votes |
Number of polling stations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Andhra Pradesh | 49.654.389 | 34,332,073 | 69.14% | 2.78% | 60,960 |
Arunachal Pradesh | 611,572 | 441.231 | 72.15% | 3.53% | 1,741 |
Assam | 14.290.673 | 10.182.919 | 71.26% | 2.65% | 17,653 |
Bihar | 58,788,098 | 36.143.272 | 61.48% | 1.33% | 83,170 |
Goa | 908.849 | 409,944 | 45.11% | 0.04% | 1,135 |
Gujarat | 29,512,402 | 13,878,611 | 47.03% | 1.87% | 35,053 |
Haryana | 11,038,955 | 7,029,964 | 63.68% | 0.79% | 15,449 |
Himachal Pradesh | 3,786,479 | 2,149,816 | 56.78% | 0.75% | 6.230 |
Jammu and Kashmir | 5,030,094 | 1,626,945 | 32.34% | 3.47% | 6,513 |
Karnataka | 34.284.098 | 23.168.337 | 67.58% | 3.45% | 44,497 |
Kerala | 22,058,901 | 15,482,676 | 70.19% | 0.63% | 23.007 |
Madhya Pradesh | 46,915,473 | 25,746,824 | 54.88% | 1.49% | 56,455 |
Maharashtra | 56,853,196 | 34,660,007 | 60.96% | 4.64% | 74.111 |
Manipur | 1,372,339 | 901.242 | 65.67% | 0.84% | 2,001 |
Meghalaya | 1,178,250 | 661.657 | 56.16% | 1.08% | 1,576 |
Mizoram | 449.406 | 293,513 | 65.31% | 0.57% | 782 |
Nagaland | 955.914 | 728.843 | 76.25% | 0.52% | 1,581 |
Orissa | 24,187,490 | 13,456,534 | 55.63% | 1.39% | 30,015 |
Punjab | 15.717.304 | 8,819,200 | 56.11% | 0.73% | 18,220 |
Rajasthan | 31,106,488 | 16,754,016 | 53.86% | 1.07% | 40,869 |
Sikkim | 255.377 | 208,670 | 81.71% | 1.70% | 336 |
Tamil Nadu | 47,733,664 | 27,676,543 | 57.98% | 1.58% | 54,847 |
Tripura | 1,796,055 | 1,223,784 | 68.14% | 1.57% | 2,367 |
Uttar Pradesh | 102.946.404 | 55.107.957 | 53.53% | 1.34% | 123,862 |
West Bengal | 47,649,856 | 35,761,182 | 75.05% | 1.27% | 61,514 |
Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 247.384 | 147.102 | 59.46% | 0.87% | 370 |
Chandigarh | 585.006 | 282,879 | 48.35% | 0.02% | 645 |
Dadra and Nagar Haveli | 98,376 | 73.507 | 74.72% | 2.17% | 123 |
Daman and Diu | 72.216 | 51,811 | 71.74% | 1.95% | 82 |
Delhi | 8,712,530 | 3,793,697 | 43.54% | 0.00% | 8,666 |
Lakshadweep | 37,619 | 30,174 | 80.21% | 1.03% | 43 |
Pondicherry | 701.990 | 444.174 | 63.27% | 0.00% | 778 |
total | 619,536,847 | 371.669.104 | 59.99% | 1.91% | 774.651 |
By far the lowest voter turnout was in Jammu and Kashmir with 32.3%. In the capital, Srinagar , only 12% went to the ballot boxes. On the one hand, this probably expressed general election fatigue in view of the third election within 4 years, on the other hand it also expressed disappointment and general political frustration because there had been no movement on the Kashmir issue so far. Since the militant independence fighters had called for an election boycott, the population probably feared retaliation if they participated in the election. The isolated high voter turnout of 82% in the constituency of Ladakh was explained by the fact that a Muslim and a Buddhist candidate were competing here, which mobilized the electorate.
Results
Overall result
The election result largely met the expectations of election observers at home and abroad. There was a victory for the NDA party coalition led by the BJP, which together with the supporting Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won around 42% of the vote and 302 (55.6%) out of 543 constituencies. The BJP received 23.8% of the vote, slightly less than in the last election in 1998 (25.5%). However, this was due to the fact that in favor of its many coalition partners in many constituencies the BJP had refrained from nominating its own candidates (340 BJP constituency candidates, compared to 384 candidates in the 1998 election). With 182 constituencies (33.5%), the BJP won just as many constituencies as in 1998, but the allied NDA parties were able to grow strongly. Shiv Sena won 9 additional seats, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) 6 and the newly founded Janata Dal (United) 21. The only major NDA party that suffered significant losses was Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab. Also noteworthy was the good performance of the TDP in Andhra Pradesh, which was able to more than double its presence in the Lok Sabha from 12 to 29 seats, making it the fourth-strongest Indian party. The Congress party was a clear loser with a loss of 27 seats. With 114 seats, she achieved the worst result in her party history.
The election victory was widely seen as a personal success of Vajpayee, who enjoyed considerable prestige among the Indian electorate beyond the BJP's party lines and was seen by many as "the right man in the wrong party".
Political party | Abbreviation | be right | Seats | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
number | % | +/- | number | +/- | % | ||
Indian National Congress | INC | 103.120.330 | 28.30% | 2.48% | 114 | 27 | 20.9% |
Bharatiya Janata Party | BJP | 86.562.209 | 23.75% | 1.84% | 182 | 33.4% | |
Communist Party of India (Marxist) | CPM | 19,695,767 | 5.40% | 0.24% | 33 | 1 | 6.1% |
Bahujan Samaj Party | E.G | 15.175.845 | 4.16% | 0.51% | 14th | 9 | 2.6% |
Samajwadi party | SP | 13,717,021 | 3.76% | 1.17% | 26th | 6 | 4.8% |
Telugu Desam Party | TDP | 13.297.370 | 3.65% | 0.88% | 29 | 17 | 5.3% |
Janata Dal (United) | JD (U) | 11,282,084 | 3.10% | (New) | 21st | (New) | 3.9% |
Rashtriya Janata Dal | RJD | 10.150.492 | 2.79% | 0.01% | 7th | 10 | 1.3% |
All India Trinamool Congress | AITC | 9,363,785 | 2.57% | 0.15% | 8th | 1 | 1.5% |
Nationalist Congress Party | NCP | 8.260.311 | 2.27% | (New) | 8th | (New) | 1.5% |
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | AIADMK | 7,046,953 | 1.9% | 0.10% | 10 | 8 | 1.8% |
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | DMK | 6,298,832 | 1.73% | 0.29% | 12 | 6 | 2.2% |
Shiv Sena | SHS | 5,672,412 | 1.56% | 0.21% | 15th | 9 | 2.8% |
Communist Party of India | CPI | 5,395,119 | 1.48% | 0.27% | 4th | 5 | 0.7% |
Biju Janata Dal | BJD | 4,378,536 | 1.20% | 0.20% | 10 | 1 | 1.8% |
Janata Dal (Secular) | JD (S) | 3,332,702 | 0.91% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Shiromani Akali Dal | SAD | 2,502,949 | 0.69% | 0.12% | 2 | 6 | 0.4% |
Pattali Makkal Katchi | PMK | 2,377,741 | 0.65% | 0.23% | 5 | 1 | 0.9% |
Indian National Lok Dal | INLD | 2,002,700 | 0.6% | 0.02% | 5 | 1 | 0.9% |
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | MDMK | 1,620,527 | 0.44% | 4th | 1 | 0.7% | |
Revolutionary Socialist Party | RSP | 1,500,817 | 0.41% | 0.14% | 3 | 2 | 0.5% |
Rashtriya Lok Dal | RLD | 1,364,030 | 0.37% | (New) | 2 | (New) | 0.4% |
All India Forward Bloc | AIFB | 1,288,060 | 0.35% | 0.02% | 2 | 0.4% | |
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation | CPI (ML) L | 1,220,698 | 0.33% | 0.08% | 1 | 1 | 0.2% |
Asom Gana Parishad | AGP | 1,182,061 | 0.32% | 0.03% | 0 | 0.0% | |
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha | JMM | 974609 | 0.27% | 0.09% | 0 | 0.0% | |
Apna Dal | AD | 848,662 | 0.23% | 0.08% | 0 | 0.0% | |
Muslim League Kerala State Committee | MUL | 833,562 | 0.23% | 0.01% | 2 | 0.4% | |
Akhil Bharatiya Lok Tantrik Congress | ABLTC | 818.713 | 0.22% | (New) | 2 | (New) | 0.4% |
Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh | BBM | 692,559 | 0.19% | (New) | 1 | (New) | 0.2% |
Republican Party of India | RPI | 505.664 | 0.14% | 0.23% | 0 | 4 | 0.0% |
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference | JKNC | 454.481 | 0.12% | 0.09% | 4th | 1 | 0.7% |
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslims | AIMIM | 448.165 | 0.12% | 0.01% | 1 | 0.2% | |
MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | MGRDMK | 396.216 | 0.11% | 0.03% | 1 | 1 | 0.2% |
Kerala Congress | KEC | 365.313 | 0.10% | 0.01% | 1 | 1 | 0.2% |
Kerala Congress (Mani) | KEC (M) | 357.402 | 0.10% | 1 | 0.2% | ||
Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) | SJP (R) | 297,337 | 0.08% | 0.24% | 1 | 0.2% | |
Peasants and Workers Party of India | PWP | 282,583 | 0.08% | 0.01% | 1 | 0.2% | |
Himachal Vikas Congress | HVC | 264.002 | 0.07% | 0.05% | 1 | 1 | 0.2% |
Shiromani Akali Dal (Simranjit Singh Mann) | SAD (M) | 298,846 | 0.08% | 0.01% | 1 | 1 | 0.2% |
Manipur State Congress Party | MSCP | 222,417 | 0.06% | 0.01% | 1 | 0.2% | |
Sikkim Democratic Front | SDF | 107,828 | 0.03% | 1 | 0.2% | ||
Independent | Independent | 9,996,386 | 2.74% | 0.37% | 6th | 1.1% | |
Other parties | 8,463,198 | 2.34% | 0.44% | 0 | 32 | 0.0% | |
Valid votes | 364.437.294 | 100.00% | 543 | 100.00% | |||
Registered voters / turnout | 619,536,847 | 58.8% | |||||
Source: Election Commission of India |
Results by state and union territories
The following table lists the electoral districts won by state / union territory.
After the election
The government of the NDA coalition emerged significantly stronger from the elections. Due to the changed majority structure, it was for the most part no longer possible for the smaller NDA parties to blackmail the government by threatening to leave the government. In addition, the NDA party coalition was forged more firmly through the joint election success, which had benefited the smaller parties in particular.
On October 13, 1999, President KR Narayanan swore in the 74-year-old Vajpayee for the third time in his career as Prime Minister after 1996 and 1998. The newly formed Vajpayee III cabinet comprised 70 members.
Web links
- Horst Mund and Klaus Voll: India 1999: the perspectives after the elections , Bonn, 1999. Analysis on behalf of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
literature
- Philip Oldenburg: The Thirteenth Election of India's Lok Sabha (House of the People). Asian update, 1999.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e 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).
- ↑ a b c Vajpayee loses confidence vote by 1 vote. rediff.com, April 17, 1999, accessed August 17, 2014 .
- ↑ Jayalalitha: Actress-turned-politician. BBC News, April 14, 1999, accessed August 16, 2014 .
- ↑ 12th Lok Sabha had the shortest life-span. rediff.com, April 26, 1999, accessed August 18, 2014 .
- ^ Sonia is the Congress choice for PM. rediff.com, April 17, 1999, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ↑ George Iype: Pawar, Sangma, Anwar raise banner of revolt. rediff.com, May 16, 1999, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ↑ The Rediff Election Interview / Sushma Swaraj: 'This is an election to fight for national pride'. rediff.com, August 21, 1999, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ^ Mukhtar Ahmad: National Conference wants back BJP. rediff.com, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ^ Who's Who in India's ruling NDA coalition. World Socialist Web Site, October 13, 1999, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ↑ CPI-M Politburo to review political Developments. rediff.com, April 17, 1999, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ^ History of Lok Sabha elections. SME TIMES, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ↑ a b India is not a democracy: SPIEGEL interview with the right-wing opposition leader Atal Bihari Wajpaji. Der Spiegel, January 22, 1973, accessed August 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Erich Follath and Tiziano Terzani : Guru of Nations: India's opposition leader AB Vajpayee on a change of power, nuclear weapons and poetry. Der Spiegel, May 6, 1996, accessed on August 18, 2014 .
- ^ India detonates two more bombs. BBC News, May 31, 1998, accessed August 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Concept of deterrence. Der Spiegel, June 1, 1998, accessed on August 18, 2014 (interview with Prime Minister Vajpayee).
- ^ Carey Sublette: Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Program - 1998: The Year of Testing. nuclearweaponsarchive.org, September 10, 2001, accessed August 18, 2014 .
- ^ Nawaz blames Musharraf for Kargil. The Times of India, May 28, 2006, accessed August 24, 2014 .
- ↑ Pakistan refuses to take even officers' bodies. rediff.com, July 11, 1999, accessed August 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Vir Sanghvi: Vajpayee turns quietly assertive. rediff.com, August 17, 1999, accessed August 18, 2014 .
- ↑ SCHEDULES OF GENERAL ELECTIONS - 1999 (As Originally announced on July 11th, 1999). Indian Electoral Commission, 1999, accessed August 16, 2014 .
- ↑ a b GENERAL ELECTION, 1999: Recent Changes in Poll Schedule. (PDF) Indian Electoral Commission, 1999, accessed on August 16, 2014 (English).
- ↑ Schedule at a glance. (PDF) Indian Electoral Commission, 1999, accessed on August 16, 2014 (English).
- ^ The election schedule. rediff.com, 1999, accessed August 20, 2014 .
- ↑ MD Riti: For casting vote, press here… rediff.com, August 24, 1999, accessed August 17, 2014 .
- ↑ How much does an election cost? rediff.com, March 26, 1999, accessed August 17, 2014 .
- ↑ Chindu Sreedharan: 'Why should we vote? We are not part of India? ' rediff.com, accessed August 23, 2014 .
- ↑ Willi Germund: Vajpayee is a big favorite in the elections. Berliner Zeitung, September 3, 1999, accessed on August 23, 2014 .
- ^ Bob Hardgrave: The 1999 Indian Parliamentary Elections and the New BJP-led Coalition Government. 1999, accessed August 19, 2014 .
- ^ Vajpayee, the right man in the wrong party. msn.com, August 12, 2009, accessed August 24, 2014 .
- ↑ Harbaksh Singh Nanda: India's Vajpayee: Right you, wrong party. upi.com, May 14, 2004, accessed August 24, 2014 .