The decade 1989-1999 has created an epochal shift in the Indian party system at the national level. Identify the major national trends in the party system during this era.

The decade 1989-1999 has created an epochal shift in the Indian party system at the national level. Identify the major national trends in the party system during this era. (2023, 15 Marks)

Yogendra Yadav called the order that emerged after 1989 India’s “third electoral system” (Economic and Political Weekly, 1999). In one decade India held five Lok Sabha elections and had eight governments under six Prime Ministers. Driven at once by Mandal, Mandir and the market, the change altered the structure of competition, not merely the party in office.

Major national trends

1. The end of Congress dominance

  • The Congress lost its majority in 1989 and has not won one at a general election since. Its vote fell from 39.5% (1989) to about 26% (1998), and Yadav described the result as a “post-Congress polity”.
  • It also splintered: the Tiwari Congress (1995), Tamil Maanila Congress (1996), Trinamool Congress (1998) and NCP (1999).

2. The BJP becomes a national pole

  • Its seats rose from 85 (1989) to 120, 161 and then 182 (1998 and 1999).
  • L. K. Advani‘s Rath Yatra (1990) and the Babri Masjid demolition (6 December 1992) made religion a national axis. The BJP moved from isolation (a 13-day government in 1996) to leading a coalition in 1998.

3. Mandalisation and the “second democratic upsurge”

  • V. P. Singh‘s announcement on 7 August 1990 that the Mandal recommendations would be implemented made OBC identity a national political category, the base of the SP (1992) and the RJD (1997); the BSP carried Dalit assertion.
  • Turnout rose among lower castes, rural voters and women. Yadav calls this the second democratic upsurge, a “participatory upsurge of the shudras”.

4. Federalisation of the national verdict

  • The state became the unit of political choice, and the DMK, TDP, AGP, AIADMK, Akali Dal and BJD became indispensable at the Centre.
  • The effective number of parties by vote reached about 7.1 in 1996 and 6.9 in 1998.

5. Coalition and minority government as the norm

  • The V. P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral governments were minority governments on outside support, each falling when a national party (the BJP or the Congress) withdrew it.
  • Pre-poll alliances and written agendas followed (the Common Minimum Programme, 1996; the National Agenda for Governance, 1998). By 1999 competition was bipolar, between two coalitions.

6. The fragmentation of the Janata Dal

  • The Janata Dal won 143 seats in 1989 and only 6 in 1998. It split into the Samata Party (1994), the RJD, the BJD (both 1997), and the JD(U) and JD(S) (1999), most surviving as state parties.

7. Economic convergence

  • The 1991 reforms under P. V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh took economic policy largely out of party competition, which shifted to identity and delivery.

8. A restrained Centre

  • S. R. Bommai (1994) and allies’ vetoes curbed Article 356. President K. R. Narayanan returned the recommendations for Uttar Pradesh (1997) and Bihar (1998).

Conclusion

The decade was epochal because it changed what winning required: a Congress-centred system became a multi-party, federalised and coalition-based one. The bipolar coalition system that governed until 2014 grew out of it.