General Elections of 1989

V.P. Singh, on leaving the Congress, floated the Jan Morcha along with Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammed Khan, both of whom had parted ways with Rajiv Gandhi. Later, this group merged with the Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress (S) to form a new party, the Janata Dal, with the idea of bringing together centrist parties opposing the Congress government under Rajiv Gandhi. The Janata Dal then joined a set of

regional parties (which included the DMK, he Telugu Desam party and the Asom Gana Parishad) in a coalition which came to be called National Front.

In November 1989, general elections were held for the Lok Sabha. By then, the opposition to Rajiv Gandhi had consolidated, and a coordinated strategy was adopted. The Congress did badly in the elections, though it still manged to be the largest single party in the Lok Sabha. People had lost faith in Rajiv Gandhi in the face of the accusations of corruption.

The 1989 election was the first in which no single party got a majority on its own. At that time itself some commentators indicated that the elections marked a milestone, the beginning of coalitions and a period of political instability. Rajiv Gandhi resigned in December 1989. His party chose to sit in the opposition as it did not have the majority or the support to form the government after the elections.