How a United Front was put up

The Congress’s decision to withdraw support to the Deve Gowda government is the last in a series of developments after the eleventh Lok Sabha elections in April-May last year threw up a hung House.

The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the single largest party with 161 MPs in the 545-member House, followed by the Congress which had just 136 seats.

President Shanker Dayal Sharma invited BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee on May 15, 1996, to form the new government and prove his majority on the floor of the Lok Sabha by May 31. Vajpayee was sworn in as the tenth prime minister by the President on May 16 along with 11 other cabinet ministers.

But on May 28, the BJP government resigned, claiming it was unable to muster the necessary majority.

This led to the formation of a 13-party coalition which got more support later from the National Conference. And, for the first time in the country, a left party – the Communist Party of India – shared power at the Centre while others – the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party, lent support from outside. CPI leader Indrajit Gupta was offered the post of prime minister but his party felt he should not.

Finally, the United Front government, with a 21-member council of ministers headed by H D Deve Gowda assumed office on June 1.

It won the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on June 12. Initially, only five parties were represented in the ministry. These included the Janata Dal led by Deve Gowda, the Telugu Desam Party led by N Chandrababu Naidu, the Tamil Maanila Congress headed by G K Moopanar and the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Following was the strength of each party shortly after the declaration of results for all the 543 elective seats of the Lok Sabha: United Front Janata Dal 45 CPI-M 33 CPI 12 Tamil Maanila Congress 20 DMK 17 TDP 16 SP 17 Congress (T) 4 RSP 5 MPVC 2 AGP 5 KCP 1 AIFB 3 Congress 140 Total 180 The BJP and its allies BJP 161 Shiv Sena 15 Samata Party 8 HVP 3 Akali Dal 8 Total 195 BSP 10 Independents and others 18