1998 Indian general election in Tamil Nadu

The 1998 Indian general election polls in Tamil Nadu were held for 39 seats in the state. New elections were called when Indian National Congress (INC) left the United Front government led by I. K. Gujral, after they refused to drop the regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party from the government after the DMK was linked by an investigative panel to Sri Lankan separatists blamed for the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.^[1] The result was a landslide victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 30 seats, which helped result in Atal Bihari Vajpayee being sworn in as the 16th Prime Minister of India. J. Jayalalithaa and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, broke off from their long alliance with Indian National Congress and formed an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party, by joining the National Democratic Alliance. This state proved to be very important in determining the prime minister, since the 18 seats of AIADMK proved valuable for BJP to hold power. That was short-lived, since the AIADMK left the alliance in less than a year, and BJP lost the vote of confidence resulting in fresh elections being called.

Indian general election in Tamil Nadu, 1998

← 1996 February 1998 1999 →
39 (of 543) seats in the Lok Sabha
Registered	4,55,77,788
Turnout	2,64,10,702 (57.95%) 8.98%
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance NDA UF+LF Seats won 30 9 Seat change 30 30 Popular vote 1,21,69,812 1,09,37,809 Percentage 47.53% 42.72% Swing 29.47% 12.24%
1998 Election map (by constituencies) Saffron = NDA and Red = UF
Partywise structure Alliance wise structure
Prime Minister before election Inder Kumar Gujral JD Prime Minister after election Atal Bihari Vajpayee BJP

Seat allotments

Source: Frontline ^[2]

National Democratic Alliance

Source: Indian Express^[3]

No.	Party		Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		J. Jayalalithaa	23
2.		Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dr. Ramdoss	5
3.		Bharatiya Janata Party		K. N. Lakshmanan	5
4.		Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Vaiko	5
5.		Janata Party		Subramanian Swamy	1
Unregistered party, whose candidate ran as an independent
6.		Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress		Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy	1

United Front

No.	Party		Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Tamil Maanila Congress		G. K. Moopanar	20
2.		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. Karunanidhi	17
3.		Communist Party of India		R. Nallakannu	2

• Note: Even though CPI(M) originally wanted to contest in support of the United Front, it decided to contest alone when only 1 seat (Coimbatore) was offered. After the fallout, CPM wanted to contest 6 seats in Tamil Nadu on its own, but eventually only contested 2 seats and decided to support DMK-TMC front in the other 37 seats. This was done to keep out the possibility of any vote splitting that might result in NDA gaining seats.^[4]

Congress alliance

No.	Party		Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Indian National Congress		Tindivanam K. Ramamurthy	35
2.		MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Su. Thirunavukkarasar	3
3.		United Communist Party of India		Tha. Pandian	1

Voting and results

Election map of results based on parties. Colours are based on the results table on the left

Election Map (Results reflected as %seats won by districts)

  AIADMK-BJP alliance won all the seats in this district

  AIADMK-BJP alliance won 67% of the seats (Vellore)

  DMK-TMC-CPI alliance won all the seats in this district

Alliance		Party		Popular Vote	Percentage	Swing	Seats won	Seat Change
	National Democratic Alliance		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	6,628,928	25.89%	18.05%	18	18
			Pattali Makkal Katchi	1,548,976	6.05%	4.02%	4	4
			Bharatiya Janata Party	1,757,645	6.86%	3.93%	3	3
			Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	1,602,504	6.26%	1.76%	3	3
			Janata Party	266,202	1.04%	0.28%	1	1
			Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress	365,557	1.43%		1	1
			Total	12,169,812	47.53%	29.47%	30	30
	United Front		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	5,140,266	20.08%	5.55%	5	12
			Tamil Maanila Congress	5,169,183	20.19%	6.81%	3	17
			Communist Party of India	628,360	2.45%	0.12%	1	1
			Total	10,937,809	42.72%	12.24%	9	30
	INC+		Indian National Congress	1,223,102	4.78%	13.48%	0
			MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	278,324	1.09%	new party	0	new party
			United Communist Party of India	10,018	0.04%	new party	0	new party
			Total	1,511,444	5.91%	12.35%	0
	Independents			265,029	1.03%	1.97%	0
	Other Parties (10 parties)			719,704	2.81%	2.91%	0
Total				25,603,798	100.00%		39
Valid Votes				25,603,798	96.94%
Invalid Votes				806,904	3.06%
Total Votes				26,410,702	100.00%
Registered Voters/Turnout				45,577,788	57.95%	8.98%

†: Seat change represents seats won in terms of the current alliances, which is considerably different from the last election.
‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate in Tamil Nadu that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested.
Sources: Election Commission of India^[5]

List of Elected MPs

Sl.No.	Constituency	Winner	Party		Alliance	Margin	Runner-up	Party
1	Chennai North	C. Kuppusami		DMK	UF	69,093	R. T. Sabapathy Mohan		MDMK
2	Chennai Central	Murasoli Maranc		DMK	UF	71,727	D. Jayakumar		AIADMK
3	Chennai South	T. R. Baaluc		DMK	UF	20,014	Jana Krishnamurthi		BJP
4	Sriperumbudur	K. Venugopal		AIADMK	NDA	23,795	T. Nagarathinam		DMK
5	Chengalpattu	Kanchi Panneerselvam		AIADMK	NDA	22,916	K. Parasuraman		DMK
6	Arakkonam	C. Gopal		AIADMK	NDA	49,488	A. M. Velu		TMC(M)
7	Vellore	N. T. Shanmugam		PMK	NDA	26,405	T. A. Mohammad Saqhy		DMK
8	Tiruppattur	D. Venugopalc		DMK	UF	274	S. Krishnamoorthy		AIADMK
9	Vandavasi	M. Durai		PMK	NDA	65,075	L. Balaraman		TMC(M)
10	Tindivanam	N. Ramachandran Gingee		MDMK	NDA	31,453	G. Venkataraman		DMK
11	Cuddalore	M. C. Dhamodaran		AIADMK	NDA	27,129	P. R. S. Venkatesan		TMC(M)
12	Chidambaram	R. Elumalai		PMK	NDA	7,955	V. Ganesan		DMK
13	Dharmapuri	K. Pary Mohan		PMK	NDA	99,427	P. Theertharaman		TMC(M)
14	Krishnagiri	K. P. Munisamy		AIADMK	NDA	49,349	D. R. Rajaram Naidu		TMC(M)
15	Rasipuram	V. Saroja		AIADMK	NDA	54,377	K. Kandasamy		TMC(M)
16	Salem	Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy		Independent	NDA	135,880	R. Devadass		TMC(M)
17	Tiruchengode	Edappadi K. Palaniswami		AIADMK	NDA	104,809	K. P. Ramalingam		DMK
18	Nilgiris	M. Master Mathan		BJP	NDA	60,385	S. R. Balasubramanian		TMC(M)
19	Gobichettipalayam	V. K. Chinnasamy		AIADMK	NDA	114,642	N. Ramasamy		DMK
20	Coimbatore	C. P. Radhakrishnan		BJP	NDA	144,676	K. R. Subbian		DMK
21	Pollachi	M. Thiyagarajan		AIADMK	NDA	95,401	Kovai Thangam		TMC(M)
22	Palani	A. Ganeshamurthi		MDMK	NDA	27,437	S. K. Kaarvendhan		TMC(M)
23	Dindigul	Dindigul C. Sreenivasan		AIADMK	NDA	15,199	N. S. V. Chithan		TMC(M)
24	Madurai	Subramanian Swamy		JP	NDA	20,897	A. G. S. Rambabu		TMC(M)
25	Periyakulam	R. Muthiah		AIADMK	NDA	70,580	R. Gandhimathy		DMK
26	Karur	M. Thambidurai		AIADMK	NDA	43,673	K. Natrayan		TMC(M)
27	Tiruchirappalli	Rangarajan Kumaramangalam		BJP	NDA	11,455	L. Adaikalaraj		TMC(M)
28	Perambalur	Rajarethinam		AIADMK	NDA	60,436	A. Raja		DMK
29	Mayiladuturai	K. Krishnamoorthy		TMC(M)	UF	42,456	P. D. Arulmozhi		PMK
30	Nagapattinam	M. Selvarasu		CPI	UF	131,303	K. Gopal		AIADMK
31	Thanjavur	S. S. Palanimanickamc		DMK	UF	48,204	L. Ganesan		MDMK
32	Pudukkottai	Raja Paramasivam		AIADMK	NDA	30,520	P. N. Siva		DMK
33	Sivaganga	P. Chidambaramc		TMC(M)	UF	59,141	K. Kalimuthu		AIADMK
34	Ramanathapuram	V. Sathiamoorthy		AIADMK	NDA	24,092	S. P. Udayappan		TMC(M)
35	Sivakasi	Vaiko		MDMK	NDA	134,923	V. Alagirisamy		CPI
36	Tirunelveli	M. R. Kadambur Janarthanan		AIADMK	NDA	6,904	R. Sarath Kumar		DMK
37	Tenkasi	S. Murugesan		AIADMK	NDA	97,267	M. Arunachalam		TMC(M)
38	Tiruchendur	Ramarajan		AIADMK	NDA	46,855	R. Dhanushkodi Adithan		TMC(M)
39	Nagercoil	N. Dennisc		TMC(M)	UF	29,185	Pon. Radhakrishnan		BJP

^c-indicates sitting/incumbent M.P. from previous Lok Sabha (1996–1998)

Post-election Union Council of Ministers from Tamil Nadu

Source: The Tribune^[6][7]

Cabinet Ministers

Minister	Party	Lok Sabha Constituency/Rajya Sabha	Portfolios
Rangarajan Kumaramangalam	BJP	Tiruchirappalli	Minister of Power and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
M. Thambidurai	AIADMK	Karur	Minister of Law, Justice, and Company Affairs
R. Muthiah	AIADMK	Periyakulam	Minister of Surface Transport
Vazhappady Ramamurthy	TRC	Salem	Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas

• Note: R. Muthiah resigned in just 20 days in office, due to his assets coming into question by the high court in Madras.^[8] In a year, cabinet ministers M. Thambidurai resigned along with M.R. Janarthanam, who was the replacement of R. Muthiah, as part of AIADMK's withdrawal from NDA, to start up fresh elections in 1999. Vazhappady Ramamurthy also refused to quit his cabinet ministership, and quit his relationship with AIADMK while keeping its relationship with NDA.^[6]

Ministers of State (Independent charge)

Minister	Party	Lok Sabha Constituency/Rajya Sabha	Portfolios
Dalit Elumalai	PMK	Chidambaram	Minister of Health and Family Welfare

Ministers of State

Minister	Party	Lok Sabha Constituency/Rajya Sabha	Portfolios
M. R. Kadambur Janarthanan	AIADMK	Tirunelveli	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
R. K. Kumar	AIADMK	Rajya Sabha (Tamil Nadu)	Minister of Finance

See also

• Elections in Tamil Nadu