Pawar of one: As NCP leader takes credit for bringing down Vajpayee government in 1999, what actually transpired

At a tea party organised by Swamy, Sonia and Jayalalithaa who were known to dislike each other met and spoke for a brief, sending signals that the ground may be slipping beneath Vajpayee’s feet.

Jayalalithaa then announced soon that her 18 MPs were withdrawing from the Vajpayee government, which had a wafer-thin majority. In the 1998 elections, the BJP had won 181 seats, the Congress 141, the CPI(M) 32, the Samajwadi Party 20, the AIADMK 18, the Rashtriya Janata Dal 17, the Samata Party 12 seats, the CPI nine, the Akali Dal eight, the Janata Dal six, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) five.

The vote of no-confidence was fixed for April 17, 1999. Vajpayee had not lost hope that morning. For, the DMK, AIADMK’s arch-rival in Tamil Nadu, announced support to the government. BSP leader Kanshi Ram also called up the Prime Minister, promising that the BSP’s five MPs would abstain, bringing down the majority mark. There was a sense that Vajpayee would scrape through narrowly.

But there were last-minute changes to what was seen as a day of relief for the PM. After Vajpayee delivered what came to be regarded as one of his finest speeches in Parliament — he was so combative that Sonia Gandhi got irked and walked up to him, with L K Advani stepping in between her and the PM — the division of votes was scheduled.

How the script flipped

The script changed dramatically at the last moment. The first surprise was the newly elected Odisha Chief Minister Giridhar Gomang of the Congress who had not yet resigned from his Lok Sabha membership from Koraput. Gomang came to the House at the last moment to cast his vote, upsetting the government’s calculations.

There was more in store. As the votes were being counted, it emerged that the BSP had reneged on its promise, choosing to vote against the government. The third, and perhaps the decisive, bombshell came from the NDA. Saifuddin Soz of the National Conference (NC), at the time a constituent of the ruling alliance, voted against his party’s instructions. He was subsequently expelled from the party but his vote played a role in bringing down the government.

The Vajpayee government lost by one vote, with 269 voting for it and 270 against it. The PM looked at the figures in silent disbelief, saying nothing. Yet, as no alternative government could be formed, elections were held again and Vajpayee returned to power with a bigger majority. The BJP remained at 282 but the NDA reached 303, about 30 seats ahead of the majority mark, and Vajpayee ran the first BJP-led government for a full five-year term.