Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister for 13 days

Jaipur: The 11th Lok Sabha elections were held in the country in 1996 after Congress-led PV Narasimha Rao government completed its five-year term. No party got a clear majority in the elections, but the BJP, strengthened by the Ram Mandir movement, emerged as the largest party in Parliament with 161 seats.

This was the first time that BJP won more seats than Congress. BJP’s allies also got 26 seats. Being the largest party, BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was invited to form the government. Vajpayee took over as Prime Minister on 16 May, but his government fell after just 13 days due to his inability to muster enough support to prove majority. In this way, the record of being the PM for shortest time in the country was registered in Vajpayee’s name.

After the fall of Vajpayee’s government, Janata Dal leader HD Deve Gowda formed United Front coalition government and took over as PM on June 1, 1996. Deve Gowda was the CM of Karnataka at that time.

His government also lasted for about 11 months and after this, on 21 April 1997, IK Gujral took oath as the third PM of this Lok Sabha term. After the Jain Commission report on Rajiv Gandhi assassination was leaked, Congress also withdrew support from Gujral govt. Thus, after seeing three Prime Ministers within about two years, in 1998 the country once again went to mid-term polls.

This general election was the worst election result for the Congress till then as it won 140 seats, which was 92 less than the previous elections.

National Front was at third place which included Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and Telugu Desam Party. Janata Dal got 46 seats. CPI won 32 seats and CPM won 12 seats. Most of the seats went to regional parties, with regional parties capturing 129 seats out of a total of 543 LS seats. It was from here that politics of dominance of regional parties began.