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Uncertainty plagues 11th Lok Sabha

The inevitable has happened. The political uncertainty, which prevailed after the 1996 general election, has resulted in the exit of Inder Kumar Gujral, the third prime minister in the 11th Lok Sabha.

The results of the 1996 election produced a confused picture. The Congress under then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao met with a severe rebuff from the electorate and returned with its lowest tally ever -- 136 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest single party with 160 seats. The National Front-Left Front and its allies had some 111 seats.

The hectic parleys that followed saw regional parties playing a decisive role in national politics for the first time.

As the single largest party, the BJP was invited by then President Shankar Dayal Sharma to form the government.

But the first-ever BJP government at the Centre led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee made an unceremonious exit after 13 days in office on May 28, 1996. The numbers were overwhelmingly against the BJP in the vote of confidence, despite the efforts the party made to win over some of the United Front constituents.

The country entered a new era of coalition governance when the regional parties-dominated United Front government headed by H D Deve Gowda assumed office on June 1, 1996.

The choice before the newly elected MPs was either to cobble together a viable government without laying bets on its longevity or to resign to the inevitable election in a not-too-distant future, which, too, might have resulted in yet another fractured verdict.

The UF government, the most wide-ranging coalition ever put together, was supported by the 140-member Congress and the Left Front from outside. The government secured a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on June 12.

The coming together of more than a dozen groups with divergent views and strengths provoked scepticism rather than hope. Much of the scepticism stemmed from the Deve Gowda government's dependence on the Congress's support.

As things were apparently progressing smoothly for the Deve Gowda government came the withdrawal of Congress support on March 30. The Congress alleged that the Front had failed to tackle national issues, imperilled the country's defence, allowed chaos to prevail and demoralised the civil services.

What the Congress really wanted was a change in the Front leadership. After an acrimonious debate in Parliament on April 11, Deve Gowda stepped down from office. But the uncertainty continued, as UF constitutents squabbled over his successor. Finally, on April 20, then external affairs minister Inder Kumar Gujral was selected as India's 12th prime minister.

The first embarrassment for Gujral came when he was compelled to withdraw the women's reservation bill in the Lok Sabha, following stiff opposition from his own partymen led by Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav.

The UF suffered another setback, after then Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav was chargesheeted in the Rs 10 billion fodder scam. The Janata Dal split, but the 17-member Rashtriya Janata Dal -- Laloo Yadav's splinter group -- continued as part of the ruling United Front despite the Left Front's attempt to eject it from the ruling coalition.

Finally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's 'indictment' by the Jain Commission drew the curtain on the Gujral government.

It was not the first time that the Indian electorate had denied a majority to one party. The two previous general elections, in 1989 and 1991, produced similar results.

The 10th Lok Sabha saw P V Narasimha Rao heading a minority government. The Congress was the single largest party with 226 members in the 545-member House. The BJP came next with 117 members, the highest it had won in any Lok Sabha election till then.

UNI

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