General Elections

Fresh elections were held in February-March, 1998. Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi’s widow, entered the political fray, and campaigned for the Congress. It was the fourth time since 1989 when a parliamentary elections yielded a ‘hung’ house, indicating that the era of coalitions had become established. The BJP once again came ahead of the other parties though without a majority of its own. This time round, however, the BJP had formed an alliance with regional parties from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa (now Odisha) and West Bengal. This enabled it to increase its tally

of seats, besides attracting new post-poll allies.