Bihar turns to the Janata Dal
What happened
The Janata Dal won power in Bihar in a landslide, defeating the sitting Indian National Congress government.
It won 122 of the 324 seats.
That fell short of the 163 seats needed to govern alone.
The JD took 37.7% of the seats on 25.6% of the vote.
The INC fell to 71 seats on 24.8% of the vote.
The campaign
Jagannath Mishra was sworn in as Bihar's Chief Minister for a third term on 6 December 1989, replacing Satyendra Narayan Sinha, and led the Indian National Congress's campaign for the coming election amid anti-Congress sentiment tied to the Bofors scandal.1
On 27 February 1990, armed men raided polling stations in Dongri and stuffed ballot boxes with pre-stamped papers, touching off clashes among party workers. Repolls followed at 1,239 booths statewide, and a later scholarly tally counted 86 poll-related deaths tied to the election.2
The Indian People's Front, the open political front of CPI(ML) Liberation built among landless and Scheduled Caste voters in central Bihar, contested 82 of the state's 324 assembly seats that February, its first major test at the ballot.3
The Janata Dal won 122 of the 324 seats and formed a government with the support of allied parties, ending Congress's long run in charge of the state. Lalu Prasad Yadav was sworn in as Chief Minister on 10 March 1990, the start of fifteen years of continuous Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal-led government in Bihar.4
- 1Jagannath Mishra Installed to Lead Congress's 1990 Campaign — Jagannath Mishra
- 2Booth Capturing and Violence Force Repolls on Bihar's Polling Day — Shaping Electoral Outcomes: Intra- and Anti-systemic Violence in Indian Assembly Elections (British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge Core), History of Electoral Violence in Bihar (Sanjay Kumar, Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol. 6(4), Oct-Dec 2015)
- 3Indian People's Front Makes Its First Major Bihar Assembly Bid — Indian People's Front
- 41990 Election Begins Lalu Prasad Yadav's Long Tenure — 1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, First Lalu Prasad Yadav ministry
What changed
INC's long run in charge of Bihar ended in collapse.
INC had won 2 elections in a row before this one.
69 of the 249 seats that changed hands moved from INC to JD, the largest single shift of the election.
The JD's own seat count rose from 0 to 122 that election.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, rose +5.6 pp from the previous election, the highest Bihar had recorded to that point.
Notable numbers
The closest race was Hussainabad, Bihar, decided by 163 votes — the margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second.
Sheikhpura, Bihar saw the widest margin of the election, won by 78.3% of the vote.
Ghosi, Bihar recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 84.9%.
Latehar, Bihar recorded the lowest turnout of any seat, 37.6%.
Patna West, Bihar was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 2,74,909 on its rolls.
Bokaro, Bihar drew the most candidates of any seat, 48 names on the ballot.
The backdrop
The Janata Dal's win ended the Indian National Congress's long-running dominance of Bihar's politics, and Lalu Prasad Yadav's swearing-in on 10 March 1990 opened fifteen years of continuous Janata Dal and Rashtriya Janata Dal-led government in the state.4
The same election saw the Indian People's Front, the open political front of CPI(ML) Liberation built among landless and Scheduled Caste voters in central Bihar, make its first major bid for the assembly, contesting 82 seats.3
- 3Indian People's Front Makes Its First Major Bihar Assembly Bid — Indian People's Front
- 41990 Election Begins Lalu Prasad Yadav's Long Tenure — 1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, First Lalu Prasad Yadav ministry