The 1999 Indian general election in Bihar were held for 54 seats with the state going to polls in the last three phases of the general elections. The major contenders in the state were the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Congress led alliance.[1] NDA, an alliance formed in last election, consisted of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) whereas the Congress led alliance was constituted of the Indian National Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), Communist Party of India and the Marxist Co-ordination Committee.
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54 seats | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 61.48% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The results indicated the complete reversal of the last election, NDA secured landslide victory winning 41 out of 54 seats.[2] Bihar emerged as most successful state for NDA, winning most seats in any state, leading to their huge victory under Vajpayee in the election.
The results were huge setbacks for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) limiting their seats just to 7,even RJD Supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav lost his election from Madhepura constituency to Sharad Yadav of Janata Dal (United) in close fight by 30320 votes.[3]
Election Schedule
The polling schedule for the 1999 General Elections was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner on 11 July 1999.
| Poll event | Phase | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| III | IV | V | |||||
| Notification Date | 21 August | 30 August | 07 September | ||||
| Last Date for filing nomination | 28 August | 06 September | 14 September | ||||
| Scrutiny of nomination | 30 August | 07 September | 15 September | ||||
| Last Date for withdrawal of nomination | 01 September | 09 September | 17 September | ||||
| Date of poll | 18 September | 25 September | 03 October | ||||
| Date of counting of votes/Result | 6 October 1999 | ||||||
| Voting Phases | ||
|---|---|---|
| III (19 seats) | IV (19 seats) | V (16 seats) |
Voting and results
Party wise
| Alliance/Party | Seats | Popular Vote | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contested | Won | +/- | Votes | % | +/- | ||||
| NDA | Bharatiya Janata Party | 29 | 23 |  3 | 82,04,850 | 23.01 |  1.02 | ||
| Janata Dal (United) | 23 | 18 | New | 74,05,701 | 20.77 | New | |||
| UPA | Rashtriya Janata Dal | 36 | 7 | 10 | 1,00,85,302 | 28.29 | 1.71 | ||
| Indian National Congress | 16 | 4 | 1 | 31,42,603 | 8.81 | 1.54 | |||
| Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3,50,958 | 0.98 | 0.58 | |||
| Communist Party of India | 9 | 0 |  | 9,59,705 | 2.69 | 0.71 | |||
| Marxist Co-ordination Committee | 1 | 0 | | 3,51,839 | 0.99 | 0.28 | |||
| - | - | Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation | 23 | 0 | | 8,79,081 | 2.47 | 0.35 | |
| - | - | Jharkhand Mukti Morcha | 13 | 0 | | 7,27,510 | 2.04 | 0.41 | |
| - | - | Nationalist Congress Party | 19 | 0 | New | 4,76,004 | 1.34 | New | |
| - | - | Independents (politician) | 187 | 1 | 1 | 14,82,483 | 4.16 | 2.19 | |