1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election

← 1985 27 February 1990 1995 →
324 seats to the Bihar Legislative Assembly seats 163 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	62.04%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Lalu Prasad Yadav Jagannath Mishra Inder Singh Namdhari Party JD INC BJP Leader since 1990 1989 1988 Leader's seat MLC Jhanjharpur Did not contest Last election New 196 seats, 39.30% 16 seats, 7.54% Seats won 122 71 39 Seat change New 125 23 Popular vote 8,212,666 7,946,635 3,721,392 Percentage 25.61% 24.78% 11.61% Swing New 14.52% 4.07%
CM before election Jagannath Mishra INC Elected CM Lalu Prasad Yadav JD

The 10th Bihar Legislative Assembly elections were held in February 1990, to elect representatives for the Bihar Legislative Assembly. It resulted in a decisive victory for the Janta Dal, riding on the pan-India victory of 1989, during V. P. Singh's wave. Political manoeuvres ensured parliamentarian Lalu Prasad Yadav's victory in the chief minister-ship battle, against seasoned Bihar leader Ram Sundar Das, who was close to Janta party stalwarts like S.N. Sinha and Chandrashekhar.^[1][2]

Results

Party		Seats contested	Seats	Seat change	Popular vote	Percentage
	Janata Dal	276	122	New Party	8,212,666	25.61%
	Indian National Congress	323	71	125	7,946,635	24.78%
	Bharatiya Janata Party	237	39	23	3,721,392	11.61%
	Communist Party of India	109	23	11	2,112,887	6.59%
	Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	82	19	10	1,008,174	3.14%
	Indian People's Front	82	7	New Party	889,068	2.77%
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	31	6	5	427,214	1.33%
	Janata Party	158	3	New Party	494,717	1.54%
	Marxist Co-ordination Committee	11	2	New Party	70,365	0.22%
	Jharkhand Party	28	1	New Party	134,827	0.42%
	Socialist Party	47	1	New Party	109,871	0.34%
	Independent	4320	30	1	5,907,134	18.42%
Total		6629	324		32,063,793

Source:.^[3]

The Janata dal gained majority in the house by the outside support of CPI,CPI(M),JMM and a few independents. This was followed by an internal election within the Janata dal for chief minister post. The fight was between Ram sundar Das (supported by PM VP Singh) and Lalu Yadav (supported by Deputy PM Devi Lal). Sensing a strong opponent, Lalu requested Chandra Shekhar to ask Ragunath Jha to contest, which tilted the election in his favour. Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav rallied backward caste MLAs towards Yadav. In the election, Yadav won narrowly over Das by a vote of 59 to 56. Jha won 12, mostly upper caste MLAs.^[4][5]

Elected members

References