NDA set to assume reins of power
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 7 (PTI) — Having won a clear majority, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today initiated moves for assuming reins of power at the Centre under the leadership of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, who will be the first Prime Minister outside Gandhi-Nehru family to take charge for a third time.

The NDA Coordination Committee will meet here tomorrow afternoon at the Prime Minister’s residence ahead of a meeting of the newly-elected members of the 24-member combine on Sunday to formally elect Mr Vajpayee as its leader.

For the first time in the history of India, a multi-party alliance, contesting under the respective election symbols of the constituents, has won a simple majority in a Lok Sabha election with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) inching towards a final tally of 294 — 21 seats more than the conventional halfway mark of 273.

The verdict in favour of the NDA buoyed the economy. Sensing the possibility of a stable government, the sensex recorded an all-time high of 265.4 points.

While the BJP effectively won 181 seats, one less than its 1998 tally, in real terms the party sharply improved its showing considering that this time it has won 181 of the 339 seats it contested whereas last time’s tally of 182 was of a total of 381 seats it contested. Thus, in percentage terms, the BJP’s success is better than its past showing.

On the other hand, the Congress hit a new low. The party which had been hovering around 140 seats in the 1996 and 1998 elections, plummeted to an all-time low of 112 seats while its president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, was elected from two seats. In real terms, the Congress tally, therefore, will be 111 when the 13th Lok Sabha is constituted.

The parties which have every reason to rejoice the verdict, incidentally, are the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, who with their respective tallies of 26 and 13, improved on their past performance.

The Samajwadi Party has a special reason to rejoice — its tally of 26 is more than the score of all previous Socialist formations — the erstwhile Socialist Party, the erstwhile Samyukta Socialist Party and the erstwhile Praja Socialist Party.

The Left Front has yielded ground. Its total tally in the new House is 41 with the CPM winning 32 seats which is below its previous strength. The CPI, which has won four seats, has also hit an all-time low in its parliamentary history.

Among the newcomers, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has opened its account with seven seats — six from Maharashtra and one from Meghalaya. The result of its Bihar stalwart, Mr Tariq Anwar, is still awaited.

Among the regional parties, the Telugu Desam Party reached an all-time high of 29. The DMK won 12 and the AIADMK tally fell to 10. The West Bengal Trinamool Congress improved its strength to eight. Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena won 15 seats — equalling its 1996 tally.

Of the northern parties, Haryana’s Indian National Lok Dal and the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference improved their positions by one seat each to go up to five and four, respectively. The SAD retained its token presence with two seats and the Akali Dal (Amritsar) regained its presence with one seat (in 1989 the party’s leader, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, had refused to take the oath as a Lok Sabha Member, objecting to the security regulation prohibiting him from entering the Parliament premises with his kirpan).

If the NDA has reasons to rejoice at the results from other parts of the country, including Bihar where the BJP-JD (U) was gaining at the expense of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), all was not well in Uttar Pradesh, the state which sends maximum representatives to the Lok Sabha.

The NDA, which till late last night appeared to be hovering on the fringe of the majority mark, surged to a comfortable mark thanks to massive gains in Bihar and Orissa.

The RJD supremo, Mr Laloo Yadav, who had been having an iron grip on state politics for a decade now, was finally vanquished by his arch rival, Mr Sharad Yadav, in the Madhepura Lok Sabha constituency by 30,319 votes. The result was officially announced after the Election Commission cleared it after hearing a petition for a repoll by Mr Sharad Yadav.

There was yet another dramatic outcome from Bihar. Former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar JD (U), who had lost by a narrow margin, made a comeback after his plea for recounting was acceded to by the Election Commission. He finally won by 1338 votes against his RJD rival, Mr Vijay Krishna.

In Orissa, the BJD-BJP combine made a near-clean sweep of the 21 seats at stake, winning 19 of them. The BJP won 10 while the BJD emerged victorious on nine. The Congress, which is ruling the state, emerged a poor third with two seats.

While the alliance with the Janata Dal (U) in Bihar brought in gains for the BJP, the tie-up proved to be its undoing in Karnataka. Of the 28 seats, the Congress won 18, the BJP seven and the Janata Dal (U) three.

Madhya Pradesh was another state which went the BJP way and the party managed to win 29 of the 40 seats at stake.

The BJP also opened its account in Assam, winning one seat.

On the lighter side, the results threw up a significant number of glamorous MPs. Tamil Nadu alone contributed seven personalities from the tinsel world while Bollywood produced two heroes.

Apart from Vinod Khanna and Sunil Dutt, the list included Telugu matinee idol Krishnamaraju, and popular Kannada film actors, Ambareesh and Sashikumar. For the first time a film actor, Murali, got elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala.

In Jammu and Kashmir, there were three former union ministers, who failed to make it to the 13th Lok Sabha. They included Mr Saifuddin Soz, Mr Mufti Mohammed Sayed and Mr Maqbool Dar.

Other prominent losers from various states included Mr M.Ramdoss from Pondicherry, Mr Motilal Vora (Congress) from Rajnandgaon in MP, cricketer Chetan Chauhan (BJP) from Amroha in UP, Mr Malika Arjun (Congress) from Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh and Mr Tapan Das Gupta (TC) from Hooghly in West Bengal.

There were several prominent winners too. They included former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Manohar Joshi, Ms Maneka Gandhi, NCP leader, Sharad Pawar, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, former union minister N.D.Tiwari, Mr Ajit Singh, BSP leader Mayawati, former MP Chief Minister Sunderlal Patwa, and Phoolan Devi.

NDA to elect leader on Oct 10
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 7 — The victorious National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will hold its first post-election meeting at 7, Race Course Road, the residence of the Prime Minister, on Friday.

The meeting has been convened by the NDA convenor and the successful Janata Dal (United) candidate from Nalanda, Mr George Fernandes.

The newly elected Lok Sabha members belonging to the NDA are expected to meet at the Parliament House annexe on October 10 to complete the formality of re-electing Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as the alliance’s parliamentary leader.

The process of government formation is likely to take another week from now. According to sources, the new Council of Ministers is likely to be sworn in on October 14.