Fate of the mergers

1977-1979 Janata Party

The first coalition experiment in the country came in the backdrop of the 1975-1977 Emergency, imposed by the Indira Gandhi government. With many opposition leaders in jail, veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan worked hard to unite the old Congress stalwarts, Jana Sangh, Lok Dal and others to create the Janata Party. It came to power in 1977 sweeping across the northern plains, while the Congress retained its hold across the Vindhyas.  Internal squabbles hit the functioning of the government under Morarji Desai and the issue of dual membership led to its undoing. Finally, Jat leader Charan Singh was enticed by the Congress to form a government. However, he bowed out before taking a trust vote in Parliament.

1989-1990 National Front

The Congress won an unprecedented 404-seat mandate after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. However, the Congress government under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi got entangled in corruption charges in the infamous Bofors deal. His Finance Minister VP Singh, along with Arun Nehru, formed the Jan Morcha. It gathered strength through the Janata Dal and other parties, including the TDP and the DMK from the South.  Together, they weaved a National Front and the government was formed with the help of the BJP and the Left. Inherit contradictions left it scarred as the BJP kept pushing for Ram Mandir. PM VP Singh invoked the Mandal Commission report, leading to angry protests in the country and eventually to the break down of the coalition.

1990-1991 Samajwadi Janata Party coalition

Like Charan Singh, the Congress found a willing socialist leader in Chandrashekhar to form a minority government after the exit of VP Singh. A former Congressman and known as one of the young Turks who took on Indira Gandhi, Chandrashekar became the PM with outside support from the Congress. Soon, the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress withdrew support on the grounds that the Congress president was being followed after two constables were caught outside his residence.  

1996-1998 United Front

This was a purely post-election arrangement. The polls had given a fractured mandate, which the then Congress president PV Narasimha Rao explained as the voters wanting every party to sit in the opposition. The then President SD Sharma invited criticism of a few rival political parties of the BJP for inviting AB Vajpayee to form a government without a majority. His resignation 13 days later was followed by the United Front (UF) forming a government with outside support from the Congress. HD Deve Gowda became PM. Clashes on policies and with Gowda government going after Congress president Sitaram Kesri, there was a change in leadership. IK Gujral replaced Gowda. However, the arrangement met a dead end as the Congress withdrew support. The reason cited was UF’s failure to drop DMK members from the Council of Ministers after Jain Commission of Inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi assassination made references to the soft-approach of the Dravidian party towards the LTTE and its Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka. 

1998-1999 NDA

The 13-day setback sent the BJP leaders back to the drawing board and bring in parties into its fold ahead of the elections. The result was the BJP under Vajpayee-Advani came to power with over 13 parties, but the coalition with an agreed National Agenda for Governance fell after 13 months. A political difference made the AIADMK  leader Jayalalithaa shake hands with the Congress. The Vajpayee government lost the trust vote by  a mere one vote.

1999-2004 NDA

Post Kargil, the NDA under Vajpayee, now with more parties in its fold, came back to power. At one point, there were nearly 23 parties, including some from Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, the TDP had switched sides to be with the NDA lending support from the outside, while the PMK in Tamil Nadu stepped out to contest the Assembly polls with Jayalalithaa. Her main opponent in the state, the DMK — that switched sides post-AIADMK exit from NDA — remained a partner throughout. Encouraged by Naidu, who dissolved the Andhra Assembly early, and ‘Shining India’, the BJP called for early elections.

2004-2009 UPA-I

The Congress under Sonia Gandhi formed a coalition revising its earlier stand of coalitions being a transitory phase in national politics. The alliance emerged as the largest pre-election coalition with the Left parties providing crucial support from the outside. The Manmohan Singh government ran with hiccups over economic policies. The progress on civil-nuclear deal with the US forced the Left to pull the plug on UPA-I, but Congress managed to stay in power with support from Samajwadi Party that was earlier left out in the cold.

2009-2014 UPA-II

Development works by UPA-I, image of PM Manmohan Singh and policies like MNREGA brought back the government after the Left parties’ efforts to cobble up a Third Front failed to strike a chord with the electorate. The BJP came a cropper for the second time in a row. The coalition completed its second term with Manmohan Singh becoming the only other person after Jawaharlal Nehru to serve a 10-year stint as PM. Yet, corruption charges against members of coalition partners and Congress leaders plus “policy paralysis” led to the government being shown the door.  — KVP