The 1998 Indian general election polls in Tamil Nadu were held for 39 seats in the state. New elections were called when Indian National Congress (INC) left the United Front government led by I. K. Gujral, after they refused to drop the regional Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party from the government after the DMK was linked by an investigative panel to Sri Lankan separatists blamed for the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.^[1] The result was a landslide victory for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 30 seats, which helped result in Atal Bihari Vajpayee being sworn in as the 16th Prime Minister of India. J. Jayalalithaa and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, broke off from their long alliance with Indian National Congress and formed an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party, by joining the National Democratic Alliance. This state proved to be very important in determining the prime minister, since the 18 seats of AIADMK proved valuable for BJP to hold power. That was short-lived, since the AIADMK left the alliance in less than a year, and BJP lost the vote of confidence resulting in fresh elections being called.

Quick Facts 39 (of 543) seats in the Lok Sabha, Registered ...

Indian general election in Tamil Nadu, 1998

← 1996 February 1998 1999 →
39 (of 543) seats in the Lok Sabha
Registered	4,55,77,788
Turnout	2,64,10,702 (57.95%) 8.98%
First party Second party   Leader J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Party AIADMK DMK Alliance NDA United Front Seats won 30 9 Seat change 30 30 Popular vote 1,21,69,812 1,09,37,809 Percentage 47.53% 42.72% Swing 29.47% 12.24%
1998 Election map (by constituencies) Saffron = NDA and Red = UF

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Source: Frontline ^[2]

National Democratic Alliance

Source: Indian Express^[3]

More information No., Party ...

No.	Party		Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		J. Jayalalithaa	23
2.		Pattali Makkal Katchi		Dr. Ramdoss	5
3.		Bharatiya Janata Party		K.N. Laxmanan	5
4.		Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Vaiko	5
5.		Janata Party		Subramanian Swamy	1
Unregistered party, whose candidate ran as an independent
6.		Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress		Vazhappady K. Ramamurthy	1

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United Front

More information No., Party ...

No.	Party		Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Tamil Maanila Congress		G. K. Moopanar	20
2.		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		M. Karunanidhi	17
3.		Communist Party of India		R. Nallakannu	2

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• Note: Even though CPI(M) originally wanted to contest in support of the United Front, it decided to contest alone when only 1 seat (Coimbatore) was offered. After the fallout, CPM wanted to contest 6 seats in Tamil Nadu on its own, but eventually only contested 2 seats and decided to support DMK-TMC front in the other 37 seats. This was done to keep out the possibility of any vote splitting that might result in NDA gaining seats.^[4]

Congress alliance

More information No., Party ...

No.	Party		Election Symbol	Leader	Seats
1.		Indian National Congress		K. V. Thangkabalu	35
2.		MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam		Su. Thirunavukkarasar	3
3.		United Communist Party of India		Tha. Pandian	1

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More information Alliance, Party ...

Alliance		Party		Popular Vote	Percentage	Swing	Seats won	Seat Change
	National Democratic Alliance		All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	6,628,928	25.89%	18.05%	18	18
			Pattali Makkal Katchi	1,548,976	6.05%	4.02%	4	4
			Bharatiya Janata Party	1,757,645	6.86%	3.93%	3	3
			Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	1,602,504	6.26%	1.76%	3	3
			Janata Party	266,202	1.04%	0.28%	1	1
			Independents	365,557	1.43%		1
			Total	12,169,812	47.53%	29.47%	30	30
	United Front		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	5,140,266	20.08%	5.55%	5	12
			Tamil Maanila Congress	5,169,183	20.19%	6.81%	3	17
			Communist Party of India	628,360	2.45%	0.12%	1	1
			Total	10,937,809	42.72%	12.24%	9	30
	INC+		Indian National Congress	1,223,102	4.78%	13.48%	0
			MGR Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	278,324	1.09%	new party	0	new party
			United Communist Party of India	10,018	0.04%	new party	0	new party
			Total	1,511,444	5.91%	12.35%	0
	Independents			265,029	1.03%	1.97%	0
	Other Parties (10 parties)			719,704	2.81%	2.91%	0
Total				25,603,798	100.00%		39
Valid Votes				25,603,798	96.94%
Invalid Votes				806,904	3.06%
Total Votes				26,410,702	100.00%
Reigstered Voters/Turnout				45,577,788	57.95%	8.98%

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†: Seat change represents seats won in terms of the current alliances, which is considerably different from the last election.
‡: Vote % reflects the percentage of votes the party received compared to the entire electorate in Tamil Nadu that voted in this election. Adjusted (Adj.) Vote %, reflects the % of votes the party received per constituency that they contested.
Sources: Election Commission of India^[5]

^c-indicates sitting/incumbent M.P. from previous Lok Sabha (1996–1998)

Source: The Tribune^[6][7]

• Elections in Tamil Nadu