Coalitions and defections

After 1967, no single party had a majority in many states. So opposition parties came together to form coalition governments. These joint legislative parties were called Samyukt Vidhayak Dal (SVD), 'united legislators' party'.

The partners were often ideological opposites, held together only by being against the Congress:

• In Bihar, the SVD government included the two socialist parties (SSP and PSP), the CPI on the left and the Jana Sangh on the right.
• In Punjab, it brought together the Akali Dal, the communists and the Jana Sangh.

Such coalitions were unstable: they quarrelled and often collapsed within months.

Another feature of the time was defection: an elected member leaving the party on whose symbol he or she was elected, and joining another. Groups of Congress legislators broke away and helped set up non-Congress governments in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The most famous case: Gaya Lal, an MLA in Haryana, changed his party three times in a fortnight in 1967. This gave Indian politics a joke phrase: 'Aya Ram, Gaya Ram' (Ram came, Ram went), still used for politicians who keep switching sides.

Defections made governments short-lived and made voters feel cheated, since they had voted for a party. Later, the Constitution was amended (the anti-defection law of 1985) to stop elected members switching parties freely.