1992 New Delhi Lok Sabha seat by-election

Candidate Rajesh Khanna Shatrughan Sinha Party INC BJP

In June 1992 a by-election was held for the New Delhi seat in the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament of India).^[1] The by-election was called after the resignation of the incumbent Member of Parliament L.K. Advani.^[2]

Background

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Advani had won the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the 1989 and 1991 general elections.^[3] However, Advani had also won the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat in 1991, and thus opted to resign from the New Delhi seat.^[4]

The by-election was originally scheduled for November 1991, but was countermanded after the death of candidate Mukesh Kumar Garg of Kanpur.^[4][5]

Candidates

A whopping 125 candidates contested the by-election.^[2] The two main candidates were Bollywood star actors.^[6] The Indian National Congress fielded film star Rajesh Khanna as their candidate in the by-election.^[3] Khanna had contested against Advani in the 1991 election in New Delhi, and lost by a mere 1,589 votes.^[1] In the 1992 by-election his main opponent was another actor, Shatrughan Sinha of the BJP.^[1][7] Sinha, nicknamed 'Shotgun', had campaigned for the non-Congress opposition in the 1989, but without affiliating with any party at the time.^[8][9][10] In his 1992 campaign Sinha adopted a tough stance against Khanna and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, challenging the Congress government on election promises made in the 1991 campaign.^[8] India Today compared his election rhetoric to his performance as the rogue Chhannoo in the 1971 hit Mere Apne.^[8] BJP leaders campaigning on behalf of Sinha included Uma Bharti, Madan Lal Khurana, and Vijay Kumar Malhotra.^[8] Advani was notably absent from the campaign.^[9]

Khanna's campaigners included H.K.L. Bhagat, R.K. Dhawan, and Vidya Charan Shukla.^[8] It was reported that H.K.L. Bhagat had also sought the Congress nomination for the by-election.^[8]

The wives of the two contending film stars, Dimple Kapadia and Poonam Sinha, played a prominent role in mobilizing crowds for their husband's campaign rallies.^[8]

Jai Bhagwan Jatav stood as the Janata Dal candidate in the by-election.^[8] Jatav was expected to do well amongst Muslim voters.^[8] In the buildup to the demolition of the Babri Masjid later in 1992, Muslims tended to perceive P.V. Narasimha Rao's Congress as taking a soft stance on the advance of the Hindutva movement.^[11]

Independent candidate Phoolan Devi, known internationally as the 'Bandit Queen', was in jail at the time of the by-election.^[2][12][13] Devi had been imprisoned without trial since 1983 on around 50 charges, including murder.^[12]

Result

^[2]

The election was won by R. Khanna.^[2][3] The by-election victory was interpreted as an important victory for the Congress government of P.V. Narasimha Rao.^[7]

Khanna failed to be re-elected from New Delhi in 1996.^[3] Sinha was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1996, and would later become a Union Minister.^[14] In his 2016 autobiography Anything but Khamoosh, Sinha expressed regret over having contested the 1992 by-election against fellow actor Khanna.^[9]

References