ABSTRACT
The success or failure of a national party in these elections does have a certain amount of psychological impact on the voters in the rest of the country. The Vajpayee government was sworn in on October 13, 1999, and the transition from caretaker government to legitimate government was smooth. Vajpayee called for a National Council meeting of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which was held in Chennai on December 27-29. The prime minister indicated that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government would make a bold departure from past policies and practices in order to tackle the endemic issues of poverty, health, education, unemployment, and discrimination based on gender and caste. The BJP lost the general election in 2004, but it left behind a self-confident India, in the midst of a rapid economic expansion and ready to negotiate a 'strategic partnership' with Washington, a course that the United States had begun to pursue.
