1998 Indian general election in Tamil Nadu

Indian general election in Tamil Nadu, 1998
39 (of 543) seats in the Lok Sabha
Registered	4,55,77,788
Turnout	2,64,10,702 (57.95%) 8.98%
	1998 Election map (by constituencies); Saffron = NDA and Red = UF

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.

Seat allotments

Source: Frontline ^[2]

National Democratic Alliance

Source: Indian Express^[3]

No.		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. Laxmanan	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.		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.		Leader	Seats
1.	Indian National Congress	K. V. Thangkabalu	35
2.	MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	Su. Thirunavukkarasar	3
3.	United Communist Party of India	Tha. Pandian	1

Voting and results

Alliance			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
		Independents	365,557	1.43%		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%
Reigstered 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		Alliance	Margin	Runner-up
1	Chennai North	C. Kuppusami	DMK	UF	69,093	R. T. Sabapathy Mohan	MDMK
2	Chennai Central	Murasoli Maran^c	DMK	UF	71,727	D. Jayakumar	AIADMK
3	Chennai South	T. R. Baalu^c	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. Venugopal^c	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. Palanimanickam^c	DMK	UF	48,204	L. Ganesan	MDMK
32	Pudukkottai	Raja Paramasivam	AIADMK	NDA	30,520	P. N. Siva	DMK
33	Sivaganga	P. Chidambaram^c	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. Dennis^c	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