1996 Indian general election

1996 Indian general election

← 1991 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 1998 →
← outgoing members elected members →
543 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha 272 seats needed for a majority
Registered	592,572,288
Turnout	57.94% ( 1.21pp)
First party Second party   Leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee P. V. Narasimha Rao Party BJP INC(I) Last election 20.07%, 120 seats 36.40%, 244 seats Seats won 161 140 Seat change 41 104 Popular vote 67,950,851 96,455,493 Percentage 20.29% 28.80% Swing 0.18pp 7.46pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader H. D. Deve Gowda Harkishan Singh Surjeet Party JD CPI(M) Alliance UF UF Last election 11.73%, 59 seats 6.16%, 35 seats Seats won 46 32 Seat change 13 3 Popular vote 27,070,340 20,496,810 Percentage 8.08% 6.12% Swing 3.76pp 0.04pp
Results by constituency
Prime Minister before election P. V. Narasimha Rao INC(I) Prime Minister after election Atal Bihari Vajpayee BJP

General elections were held in India on 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 to elect the members of the eleventh Lok Sabha.

The elections resulted in a hung parliament with no single party having a clear majority.^[1] The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had won the most seats despite finishing second in the popular vote, formed a short-lived government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, two weeks later the United Front coalition was able to secure a parliamentary majority and H. D. Deve Gowda of Janata Dal became prime minister. In 1997 Inder Kumar Gujral, also from the United Front, succeeded Gowda as prime minister. Due to the instability, early elections were held in 1998.^[2] The elections were the first since 1980 in which every states' seats were elected in a single election period.^[3]