JUST ONE VOTE? - NOT REALLY.

"Today, I have been accused of lusting after power and of doing whatever it takes to be in power... But, I have been in power before and I have never done anything immoral for power, If breaking up political parties is the only way to form a coalition that stays in power, then I do not want to touch such a coalition with a barge pole.....We assure you that till the time the work that we started with our bare hands in the national interest is not completed, we shall not rest. Respected Speaker, I am going to the President to tender my resignation". These were the words of former Prime Minister Vajpayee before the scheduled vote of confidence in 1996. He had to resign as Prime Minister of the first BJP government of India after a period of just 13 days.

And then, after 2 years, in 1998, BJP came to power with the support of 18 other parties in alliance across the country and that was a stable government till one day when AIADMK(a regional party from TamilNadu) supremo and NDA(National Democratic Alliance - A BJP alliance) partner Ms. Jayalalitha decided to pull out the support of her 18 MPs from NDA. This resulted in a confidence vote which the Vajpayee government lost by just one vote. (269-270).

What circumstances lead Jayalalitha to this decision? The ADMK which was in power in Tamilnadu was rooted in the 1996 assembly elections. The subsequent DMK government under Mr.Karunanidhi then set up three special courts to investigate corruption in the Jayalalithaa regime from 1991 to 1996. AIADMK formed an alliance with the BJP in the 1998 parliamentary elections. There was a serial bomb blast at a public meeting in Tamilnadu by BJP leader Advani. The blast was a major setback for the DMK. ADMK-BJP alliance won decisively getting 30 out of 39 MPs from the state. ADMK which supported the BJP government from the outside soon joined it. Few ADMK leaders became Union ministers. Eventually, Jayalalithaa started giving pressure to the Vajpayee government on various issues. Delhi power corridor was filled with rumors that Jayalalithaa will withdraw her support to the government. Angry Jayalalithaa pacified from Poyes Garden, the residence of Jayalalithaa frequently saw emissaries from Delhi arriving to pacify angry Jayalaitaa on various issues. On April 7, 1998, a court in Chennai framed charges against Union Minister for Surface Transport and AIADMK leader Sedapatti R. Muthiah under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The same day Vajpayee rang up Jayalalitha and suggested that Muthiah resign; Muthiah did resign the next day, and Jayalalitha claimed that it was she who had asked Muthiah to step down. Shortly after she insisted that Bhutto Singh, Ramakrishna Hegde, and Ram Jethmalani should be removed from the cabinet due to corruption allegations immediately. And Bhutto Singh was removed from the cabinet. The BJP government refused to remove others. At a Lok Shakti rally in Bangalore on April 16, Hegde and Jethmalani unleashed a broadside against her. In an obvious reference to Jayalalitha's demands - before and after the formation of the coalition Government - Jethmalani said that these "pinpricks" would soon end. Without mentioning Jayalalitha, who was arrested in December 1996 on charges of corruption, he said, "When some people come out of jail, they become humble, chastened and responsible. Some others, however, become arrogant and irresponsible, and cannot distinguish between right and wrong". Hegde too said attempts to give pinpricks to the Government would fail.

She also insisted that the income tax cases against her should be withdrawn and the DMK government should be dismissed on law and order issues(similar to 1991). Vajpayee did not oblige this time.

On April 14, 1998, on the eve of Tamil New Year, Jayalalithaa called on then-president K R Narayanan to give him a letter withdrawing support to the Vajpayee government. Vajpayee and the BJP were then asked to prove that they enjoyed a majority in Parliament.

Again Prime Minister Vajpayee had to face a vote of Confidence. The government needed 272 votes in support to sail through. It appeared to have 259 MPs against 273 of the combined Opposition, a seemingly hopeless situation. But Vajpayee was in touch with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi whose six MPs were crucial. DMK was willing to vote for the government. Tamil Manila Congress (TMC), DMK's ally with three MPs also joined DMK in supporting the government. Mayawati, who was becoming a rising star in BSP talked in favor of supporting the BJP government. Indian National Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala announced his support to BJP. BJP leaders, especially, Pramod Mahajan, were working behind the scenes to ensure that the government stands. And it appeared as though the BJP government will survive the vote of Confidence. Short-lived terms are over in 1996. BJP, though careful, was confident that their government will complete the 5 years. But, sometimes, even the greatest of parties and greatest of leaders, cannot predict how history chooses to play itself out.

BSP leader Mayawati has assured Vajpayee that her 5 MPs would support the government. When it was time for BSP leader Mayawati to speak, she rose and?without much ado said that she, along with her 5 MPs, would be opposing the government, much to the shock of the BJP. Since then the numbers were uncertain.

So, how did this happen? Both Congress and BJP were throwing their weight to garner BSP votes. Some sources say that Mayawati was offered the CM post by the BJP if she supported the government. At 10.30 a.m. on the voting day, Vajpayee spoke directly to Kanshi Ram, the founder of BSP. He assured the prime minister that the BSP would abstain. Congress leaders Arjun Singh and Sonia Gandhi talked to Kanshi Ram and Mayawati and tried to make them vote against the government.

Also, BSP MPs Arif Mohammed Khan and Akbar Ahmed "Dumpy" told Mayawati of their fears about the party's abstention. They informed her that their Muslim voters wouldn't take it very well.

Some say that Jayalalitha got her aide Sasikala’s husband, Natarajan, to reach out to the personal secretary of Kanshi Ram, who hailed from Tamil Nadu. Natarajan and the secretary were friends.

Finally, BSP decided to vote against the BJP government.

Along with a party that changed its mind, there was an MP who voted against his party's stance. National Conference Party, with 2 MPs, decided to support the government. Omar Abdullah fulfilled his promise and voted in favor of the government. But its MP Saifuddin?Soz voted against the government.

According to the book 'Vajpayee: The Years That Changed India' written by Shakti Sinha who served as former?prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's private secretary for many years including in the PMO,?the then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, also the head of the NC, pushed his son Omar Abdullah, another MP of his party, hard and "sidelined Soz in an extremely petty manner". Soz had suggested the name of a certain person for India's official delegation for Haj but Farooq Abdullah had it removed.?When?AB Vajpayee?visited Srinagar on December 6, 998, he was supposed to meet ministers of the local government, Sinha notes, adding that since they were running slightly late, Abdullah dismissed the meeting in an "extremely cavalier" manner. "Vajpayee paid the price. While Omar Abdullah voted for the confidence motion, Soz voted against," he says.

Well, the shocks for the BJP were not yet over.

One Chief Minister's vote was the final nail that ended BJP's government. Well, wait! Do Chief ministers have a vote in Loksabha? Yes, if they had previously been an MP and had just assumed the post of Chief Minister and had not resigned from their MP post yet. The man we are talking about is Giridhar Gamaag, Congress MP, who had just become the Chief Minister of Odisha just 2 months ago. (Constitution provides 6 months for him to become an MLA). His arrival at the parliament caused controversy. And the speaker ruled that the Chief Minister can vote on his conscience. Giridhar Gamaang did not plan on changing his decision to vote against the government based on his conscience. His vote shifted the balance against the government. Had he not voted, the vote count could have been 269 - 269 and the speaker, the tiebreaker, would have certainly voted for the BJP government leading to victory. Gamaang's tenure as Odisha CM ended in less than a year. He promptly returned to Loksabha in 2004. Ironically the same man who was credited (or discredited) for the fall of the BJP government joined BJP in 2015.

These are some of the widely known instances. But there are some relatively less-known incidents that turned the tables around.

?Sinha writes that Arunachal Congress MP Wangcha Rajkumar had assured Vajpayee months before the floor test in Lok Sabha that his support for him would continue after a split in the regional party. "At that moment, there was no immediate threat to the Vajpayee government. Unfortunately, when the moment came, no one remembered to approach Rajkumar, and he voted against the government, being an old Congressman. I don't think the BJP's floor leaders were aware of his existence" he says.

?Sinha also writes that Janata Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan did not want his party to vote with Lalu Yadav, whose party was then in power in Bihar and play a part in bringing down the government. But the Janata Dal party persuaded him to be patient and he voted against BJP. Before the vote, he made it clear that "he would not compromise on secularism". He said his opposition to the corruption of Lalu Yadav was at the state level.

Also, since the BJP camp exhibited optimism, even the opposition MPs who did not want the government to fall, but wanted to show their opposition to BJP, were reassured that the government will survive despite their vote against the government.

The electronic system was used for voting, and there was confusion. The board showed Vajpayee losing the confidence vote, but the numbers didn’t tally. Then, the House speaker had to include the votes given to him in chits from members whose systems didn’t work. When the numbers all tallied, the BJP government missed the bus by a single vote. The government fell, again.

"These 14 months are the most important months of my political life. The suffering "I experienced during these 14 months, I did not even experience when I was imprisoned during the state of emergency brought about by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. When I wake up in the morning, I do not know whether I will go to bed as Prime Minister tonight or whether the government will be overthrown and deposed, " Vajpayee noted afterward.

There are multiple instances of one vote (either vote of legislators or people) breaking the elections right here in India and in other countries, right from an ordinary assembly election to presidential impeachment in the US.

On May 16, 1868, after the impeachment of the house of representatives, the Senate voted against impeaching Johnson on one of the articles, with its 35–19 vote in favor of conviction falling one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority, thus saving his presidency.

In the 2004 Karnataka assembly elections, AR Krishnamurthy of the Janata Dal (Secular) lost to Congress R Dhruvanarayan by just one vote. This happened in the Santhemarahalli (SC) assembly seat. Krishnamurthy garnered 40,751 votes while Dhruvanarayan emerged victorious with just one extra vote (40,752).

?In the 2008 Rajasthan assembly elections, in Nathdwara assembly constituency where Congress CP Joshi and BJPs Kalyan Singh Chouhan were contesting against each other, Chouhan got 62,216 votes while Joshi lost with 62,215 votes, a 1 vote difference. Joshi was the Congress PCC president and also the frontrunner for the CM post. (Some suggest that it was current CM Ashok Gehlot who plotted this. Joshi is currently the speaker of the Rajasthan assembly.)

A 2013 report in the Times of India mentions that reportedly CP Joshi's mother, sister and driver could not turn up to vote for him on the polling day. Coincidently, in Karnataka too Krishnamurthy's driver wanted to vote but could not do so because Krishnamurthy himself did not give him a break from his duty on the polling day.

In the 1989 Loksabha elections, Konathala Ramakrishna of the Congress won the Lok Sabha election from the Anakapalli seat in Andhra Pradesh by securing just nine extra votes.

?In the 1998 Loksabha elections, BJP's Som Marandi won the Rajmahal Lok Sabha seat in Bihar by just 9 votes.

So, apparently Every.Vote.Counts. Let us use that judiciously.

What do you think about this? Which was the incident that you found most interesting? What could the BJP have done to prevent the government from falling? Comment your views.

(Thanks to my sources: Multiple news outlets (including but not limited to India Today, Swarajya, ZeeNews, Hindu Frontline), Youtube interview of Vajpayee, and book).

#policy #politics #elections #bjp #congress #governance