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
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