Coalition Politics 

In this article , we will  deal with topic titled ‘Coalition Politics’.

• During 4th General Elections to Lok Sabha and State Assembly, Congress started to lose popularity . Challengers started to come from states and they lost mandate in many states . Reasons
  • People unhappy with corruption and lavish lifestyle of party members
  • Rapid erosion in party discipline
  • Power struggles within the party
  • Blow to Syndicate as large number of Congress Stalwarts lost
  • Coming together of opposition parties from 1967
  • Start of politics of defection (1967-1970 => 800 MLAs defected)

• First Coalition Government at Centre came in 1977 of Morarji Desai heading four party Janata Government for about two years (1977–79). But due to aspiration of power and position the Janata Coalition collapsed like a house of cards in July 1979. After the collapse of Janata Government, India had another coalition government headed by Charan Singh. But this government too remained for a very short time. Later for almost a decade India had a stable one party government at the centre under Congress’s leadership. People were unhappy with earlier two coalition governments.

Era of Constant Coalition Governments

• After a decade old stable government by the congress, there was a return of coalition politics. Elections in 1989 led to the defeat of the Congress Party but didn’t result in majority for any other party. This defeat of 1989 of the Congress Party marked the end of Congress dominance over the India Party System. Hence an era of multi-party system began. This new evolution in multi party system meant that no single party secured a clear majority of seats in any Lok Sabha elections held since 1989 until BJP got majority in 2014.  The nineties also saw the emergence of powerful parties and movements that represented the Dalit and backward castes. With the elections of 1989, a long phase of coalition politics began in India.
• In this phase, any government could be formed only with the participation or support of many regional parties.