Recent Developments in Indian Politics
The era of coalitions
Explain why the era of coalitions was a long-term trend, not an accident.
In 1989, no party won a majority in the Lok Sabha. The National Front formed the government, with V.P. Singh as Prime Minister. It survived with outside support from two parties that were opposites: the BJP on one side and the Left on the other, united only in keeping the Congress out.
This began the era of coalitions. From 1989 to 2014, no single party won a Lok Sabha majority on its own. Governments needed partners, and regional parties became crucial: they could make or break governments in Delhi.
The main coalition governments:
| Year | Government | How it survived |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | National Front (V.P. Singh) | outside support from the BJP and the Left |
| 1996 | United Front (H.D. Deve Gowda, then I.K. Gujral) | outside support from the Congress, to keep the BJP out |
| 1998 | BJP-led coalition (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) | fell after 13 months |
| 1999 | National Democratic Alliance (NDA) (Vajpayee) | completed its full term |
| 2004, 2009 | United Progressive Alliance (UPA) (Manmohan Singh) | Congress-led coalition |
Coalitions did not appear from nowhere. Their roots go back to the late 1960s, when groups began leaving the Congress and forming their own parties, and to 1977, when regional parties began to grow strong.
So the coalition era was a long-term trend, not an accident: India's diversity was showing itself in its party system, with power shared among many parties.
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