NEW DELHI: Congress I the party that ruled the country for over four decades — suffered its second worst defeat in 1999 mainly because of a united opposition in conjunction with a drop in its popularity from 48.1 percent in 1984 to 39.33 says a new book on elections in India, PTI reports. The nearly nine percent swing away from the Congress and greater opposition unity together cost Congress 1 221 seats as its tally dropped from 415 to 194.
There was further erosion in Congress (1) popularity between November 1989 and the February 1990 assembly elections, notes the book “forty years of World’s largest democracy,” sponsored by Press Trust of India (PTI).
But the split factor as denoted by a fall in IOU from 0.8951 to 0.7 helped it retain its hold on 383 seats out of 391 assembly segments in which it had led during the Lok Sabba poll.
At the time of its last defeat in 1977 the Congress I had won 154 seats on an all-time low voter support of 34.5 percent with 92 seats coming from the south in the elections held after late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s 21 month emergency rule.
Polling an average 45.83 percent votes the congress had managed to comer over two thirds seats in the first three general elections in the Nehru era.
But the Congress share of votes dropped to 40.8 percent in 1967 from 44.7 percent in 1962 and 47.8 percent five years earlier.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 29, 1990
