It’s official. After heading two brute majority governments in New Delhi, Narendra Modi will be taking oath as the Prime Minister of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition dispensation this weekend. This because, unlike 2014 and 2019 general elections, the saffron party couldn’t cross the 272-seat majority mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha on its own in 2024.
Coalition governments are not new to India. Since first Lok Sabha Elections held in 1952, India has seen coalition governments for about 32 years.
In fact in 2014, when the BJP alone won 282 seats – 10 more than the majority mark – India got a single-party majority government in New Delhi after 25 years. Prior to that, it was in 1984-1989 when the Congress party under Rajiv Gandhi saw a government with a brute majority by bagging 414 seats in 541-member Lok Sabha.
The Coalition Era
With 1989 came the dawn of coalition-era politics in India. The Rajiv Gandhi-led government lost its mandate in the general elections, even though the Congress was still the single largest party with 197 seats in the Lok Sabha.
VP Singh, the leader of the second largest party Janata Dal with 143 seats was invited by the President of India to form the government. On December 2, 1989, Singh was sworn as seventh Prime Minister with outside support from the BJP and the Communist parties.
The alliance, however, didn’t last long. VP Singh supported the then Bihar’s Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav‘s move to arrest BJP leader LK Advani and stop his Ram Rath Yatra while on its way to the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya on October 23, 1990. The BJP withdrew its support to VP Singh government. On November 7, 1990 VP Singh lost the vote of confidence.
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 eighth Prime Minister of India on November 10, 1990. He too had to resign on June 21, 1991, after the Congress(I) withdrew its support alleging that the Chandra Shekhar government was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.
In the 1991 elections, Congress leader PV Narasimha Rao became the Prime Minister of a minority government with outside support of the Janata Dal. The coalition government completed five years in office.
The 13-day Vajpayee govt
BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee first became the Prime Minister of a minority government for 13 days from May 16 to June 1, 1996. Vajpayee was followed by HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral as Prime Ministers of coalition governments. Both the government’s didn’t last a year each.
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No party got the majority, in the 1998 general elections for 12th Lok Sabha. The BJP bagged 182 seats. The Congress got 114 seats while the CPM won 32 seats. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was able to form a coalition government. On March 19, 1998 he was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time with support from 272 of 543 MPs. A year later, the Vajpayee government collapsed after AIADMK withdrew its support to the coalition. Vajpayee lost a confidence motion in the Lok Sabha by just one vote – first time in the history of Indpendent India.
1999-2004: The first non-Congress alliance to complete 5-yr term
Fresh elections were held for 13th Lok Sabha in September-October 1999. The BJP won 182 seats. The Congress won 114 seats and the CPM won 33 seats. Vajpayee was again sworn in as the Prime Minister on October 13, 1999 with the support of at least 13 alliance partners including the DMK, the TMC, the BJD, the National Conference, to name a few.
This was the first time that a non-Congress alliance completed a full five-year term from 1999 until 2004 when the Congress-led UPA government came to power under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.