1998 Indian general election in Kerala explained

The 1998 Indian general election were held to elect 20 members to the twelfth Lok Sabha from Kerala.^[1] Indian National Congress (INC)-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won 11 seats, while the Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) won the remaining 9 seats.^[2] The earlier election in 1996 saw both alliances win equal share of seats. Turnout for the election was at 70.66%^[3]

Background

The ruling LDF government in the state faced infightings, especially among V. S. Achuthanandan and CITU as the former was denied the Chief Ministerial post. KSKTU launched agitations against paddy field reclamation, which spiraled into a law and order issue. The state High Court directed the government to return the crop fields to the farmers. M. L. Ahuja cited "an element of militancy" and "disregard for democratic forms of agitations" among the CPI(M) activists during the agitation.

Alliances and parties

^[4]

UDF is a Kerala legislative alliance formed by INC veteran K. Karunakaran. LDF comprises primarily of CPI(M) and the CPI, forming the Left Front in the national level. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leading National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at national level contested in all 20 seats.

United Democratic Front

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Seats Contested
1.	Indian National Congress		17
2.	Indian Union Muslim League		2
3.	Kerala Congress (M)		1

Left Democratic Front

No.	Party	Election Symbol	Seats Contested
1.	Communist Party of India (Marxist)		9
2.	Communist Party of India		4
3.	Revolutionary Socialist Party		1
4.	Independents		3
5.	Janata Dal		2
6.	Kerala Congress		1

National Democratic Alliance

List of elected MPs

^[5]

No.	Constituency	Name of Elected M.P.	Party Affiliation
1	Kasaragod	T. Govindan	CPI(M)
2	Kannur	Mullappally Ramachandran	INC
3	Vatakara	A. K. Premajam	CPI(M)
4	Kozhikode	P. Sankaran	INC
5	Manjeri	E. Ahamed	IUML
6	Ponnani	G. M. Banatwala	IUML
7	Palakkad	N. N. Krishnadas	CPI(M)
8	Ottapalam	S. Ajaya Kumar	CPI(M)
9	Thrissur	V. V. Raghavan	CPI
10	Mukundapuram	A. C. Jose	INC
11	Ernakulam	George Eden	INC
12	Muvattupuzha	P. C. Thomas	KC(M)
13	Kottayam	K. Suresh Kurup	CPI(M)
14	Idukki	P. C. Chacko	KEC
15	Alappuzha	V. M. Sudheeran	INC
16	Mavelikkara	P. J. Kurien	INC
17	Adoor	Chengara Surendran	CPI
18	Kollam	N. K. Premachandran	RSP
19	Chirayankil	Varkala Radhakrishnan	CPI(M)
20	Thiruvananthapuram	K. Karunakaran	INC

Results

Performance of political parties

^[6]

No.	Party	Political Front	Seats	Votes	%Votes	±pp
1	Indian National Congress	UDF	8	57,46,566	38.67%	0.66
2	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	LDF	4	31,21,636	21%	0.16
3	Communist Party of India	LDF	2	12,35,761	8.32%	0.10
4	Bharatiya Janata Party	NDA	0	11,92,046	8.02%	2.41
5	Indian Union Muslim League	UDF	2	7,45,070	5.01%	0.07
6	Janata Dal	LDF	0	5,80,094	3.90%	0.50
7	Revolutionary Socialist Party	LDF	1	3,96,145	2.67%	0.17
8	Kerala Congress (M)	UDF	1	3,56,168	2.40%	0.26
9	Kerala Congress	LDF	0	3,27,649	2.20%	0.03
10	Indian National League	none	0	80,333	0.54%	0.53
11	Peoples Democratic Party	none	0	40,972	0.28%	0.17
12	Bahujan Samaj Party	none	0	19,475	0.1%	0.05
13	Shiv Sena	none	0	3,290	0.02%
14	Janata Party	none	0	1,164	0.01%
15	Nagaland Peoples Party	none	0	1,066	0.01%
16	The Humanist Party Of India	none	0	765	0.01%	new
17	Samata Party	none	0	558	0.00%	0.01
Independents			2	10,13,067	6.82%	0.15

By constituency

^[7]

No.	Constituency	UDF candidate	Votes	%	Party	LDF candidate	Votes	%	Party	NDA candidate	Votes	%	Party	Winning alliance	Margin
1	Kasaragod	Khader Mangad	3,47,670	39.9%	INC	T. Govindan	3,95,910	45.4%	CPI(M)	P. K. Krishnadas	1,03,093	11.8%	BJP	LDF	48,240
2	Kannur	Mullappally Ramachandran	3,80,465	46.2%	INC	A .C. Shanmukhadas	3,78,285	45.9%	IND	P. C. Mohanan	42,760	5.2%	BJP	UDF	2,180
3	Vatakara	P. M. Suresh Babu	3,48,715	41.3%	INC	A. K. Premajam	4,07,876	48.3%	CPI(M)	Chettoor Balakrishnan	69,564	8.2%	BJP	LDF	59,161
4	Kozhikode	P. Sankaran	3,56,392	45.0%	INC	M. P. Veerendra Kumar	3,37,735	42.6%	JD	P. C. Mohanan	83,862	10.1%	BJP	UDF	18,657
5	Manjeri	E. Ahamed	4,00,609	49.3%	IUML	K. V. Salahuddin	2,94,600	36.2%	CPI(M)	Sumathy Haridas	79,546	9.8%	BJP	UDF	1,06,009
6	Ponnani	G. M. Banatwalla	3,44,461	49.7%	IUML	Minu Mumthas	2,40,217	34.7%	CPI	Ahalliya Sankar	65,008	9.4%	BJP	UDF	1,04,244
7	Palakkad	V. S. Vijayaraghavan	3,20,941	43.1%	INC	N. N. Krishnadas	3,45,963	46.4%	CPI(M)	T. C. Govindan	61,419	8.2%	BJP	LDF	25,022
8	Ottapalam	K. K. Vijayalakshmi	3,15,576	43.7%	INC	S. Ajayakumar	3,35,376	46.5%	CPI(M)	P. M. Velayudhan	63,185	8.8%	BJP	LDF	19,800
9	Thrissur	K. Muraleedharan	3,47,945	46.2%	INC	V. V. Raghavan	3,38,996	45.1%	CPI	P. D. Purushothaman	54,479	7.2%	BJP	LDF	18,409
10	Mukundapuram	A. C. Jose	3,97,156	50.1%	INC	P. Govinda Pillai	3,44,693	43.5%	CPI(M)	M. S. Muraleedharan	30,779	3.9%	BJP	UDF	8,949
11	Ernakulam	George Eden	3,89,387	50.2%	INC	Sebastian Paul	3,14,879	40.6%	IND	V. V. Augustine	62,262	8.0%	BJP	UDF	74,508
12	Muvattupuzha	P. C. Thomas	3,56,168	53.9%	KC(M)	Mathew John	2,42,359	36.7%	JD	Narayanan Namboothiri	50,738	7.7%	BJP	UDF	1,13,809
13	Kottayam	Ramesh Chennithala	3,30,447	45.9%	INC	K. Suresh Kurup	3,35,893	46.7%	CPI(M)	George Kurian	42,830	5.9%	BJP	LDF	5,446
14	Idukki	P. C. Chacko	3,33,999	46.4%	INC	K. Francis George	3,27,649	45.6%	KEC	D. Asokakumar	46,130	6.4%	BJP	UDF	6,350
15	Alappuzha	V. M. Sudheeran	3,86,180	50.5%	INC	C. S. Sujatha	3,45,543	45.2%	CPI(M)	T. L. Radhamma	27,010	3.5%	BJP	UDF	40,637
16	Mavelikkara	P. J. Kurien	2,75,001	44.0%	INC	Ninan Koshy	2,73,740	43.8%	IND	Rajan Moolaveettil	68,450	11.0%	BJP	UDF	1,261
17	Adoor	Kodikunnil Suresh	3,16,292	45.8%	INC	Chengara Surendran	3,33,297	48.2%	CPI	Kainakary Janardhanan	34,816	5.0%	BJP	LDF	17,005
18	Kollam	K. C. Rajan	3,24,383	42.4%	INC	N. K. Premachandran	3,96,145	51.8%	RSP	Raichel Matthai	36,916	4.8%	BJP	LDF	71,762
19	Chirayinkil	M. M. Hassan	3,13,937	45.1%	INC	Varkala Radhakrishnan	3,21,479	46.2%	CPI(M)	T. M. Viswambharan	47,249	6.8%	BJP	LDF	7,542
20	Trivandrum	K. Karunakaran	3,37,429	44.0%	INC	K. V. Surendranath	3,22,031	42.0%	CPI	Kerala Varma Raja	94,303	12.3%	BJP	UDF	15,398

See also

• Elections in Kerala
• Politics of Kerala

Notes and References

1. Web site: General Election, 1998.
2. Web site: PC: Kerala 1998.
3. Web site: STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 1998 TO THE 12th LOK SABHA. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20180413155035/http://ceomadhyapradesh.nic.in:80/Links/Books/98_Vol_I.pdf . 2018-04-13 .
4. Web site: PC: Alliances Kerala 1998.
5. Web site: Roy Mathew. Indian Parliament Elections 1998: Kerala Winners. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20031125150501/http://www.keralaassembly.org:80/lok/winners.php4?year=1998 . 2003-11-25 . 2020-09-15. keralaassembly.org.
6. Web site: PC: Party-wise performance for 1998 Kerala.
7. Web site: PC: Kerala 1998.