Overview of Coalition Government in India

I. INTRODUCTION:

Our country reflects the picture of unity in diversity - there are differences in languages, religion, thinking and ways of life. The prophets and teacher in India have seen this difference clearly. From ancient past, the people have been united in various ways. Sanskrit was used as a language of the elite in the whole of India. Prakrit was the language of folic English language has united India and the Indians. The elites have adopted ways of English people, they think in terms of English. The political philosophies of Burke, Lock, Bentham, Adam Smith, Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, J. Maynard Keynes, Russel, Bernard Shaw etc. During the National movement practically all the National leaders studied English write and spoke English. At first Congress stick to the one-party Government. But it did not last long. During the time of Nehru, the Parliamentary Government had developed tracks with coalition in few states of our country, after the year 1968, India adopted the coalition system of Government. A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate with each other for forming a government. Cause behind such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority as per the election result. A coalition government might also be created during the time of national difficulty or crisis like during wartime or economic crisis. It can also play a role in declining internal political strife. In such times, parties have formed all-party coalitions. If a coalition collapses, a confidence vote is held or a motion of no confidence is taken.

In 1946, the interim government under the supervision of Nehru who became formal head as the prime minister , was the first formal coalition consist of the congress, Muslim league, the Hindu Mahasabha among others and identified as formal coalition Government before India got independence. After independence in the year 1952 when first election was held, the credit for having first ever coalition under the present constitution goes to what was then the PEPSU state, a Coalition of non-congress parties was formed in April, 1952. In India, coalition governments was formed after the elections in 1967. The Congress party suffered a sharp setback, both in Parliamentary as well as the state assembly elections and as a result, Opposition parties and coalitions came to power in 6 major states. In Between the elections in 1967 and July 1968, as many as 10 governments were formed in the four states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal. The first non-Congress government in Bihar was formed of all the non-Congress parties, but without any Independents. The government lasted barely 11 months and same was replaced by a Minority government, which included defectors, and was also dependent on the support of the Congress party. Another government of the same type (Minority government along with defectors) took over before the imposition of President's Rule in June 1968. A similar pattern was observed in Punjab. In Uttar Pradesh, a Congress government was formed immediately after the elections. But duration was for less than a month when Charan Singh defected along with several other Congress legislators. The new government formed by Charan Singh himself survived for less than a year, and President's Rule was imposed in February 1968. In West Bengal, the so-called United Democratic Front, was motley group of almost all the non-Congress parties, managed to work together for only 8 months. Its

The general elections were held during March, 1977. Sixth Lok Sabha gave surprise to country by defeating Congress the as well as its leader Mrs. Gandhi. Then Morarji Desai was elected leader and was sworn in as prime minister on 24 March, 1977. After sometime there was a conflict in the party with the decision to have two deputy prime minister. In this situation the congress party brought a no- confidence motion against Morarji ministry and got it passed. On 15 July, 1979 Morarji Desai submitted his resignation. Following the Ministry's fall Charan Singh left the party and formed a separate Janata Party(s). Y.B. Chavan, the leader of the congress parliamentary party, was then called by President N. Sanjeeva Reddy for forming the government. But congress declined the offer for not having the security. The president invited Charan Singh who felt confident in getting external support from the congress. Charan Singh was asked to prove his majority in the house within three weeks‘ time. On 20 August, 1979 he submitted his resignation. On 22 August, 1979 the president dissolved the Lok Sabha and ordered for conducting fresh elections. Third Coalition Government was formed on 2nd December 1989 by Shri V.P. Singh. This coalition was known as the National Front-consisting of Janata Dal, TDP, DMK, and AGP. The BJP and left parties supported the National from Government. V.P. Singh Government could not complete even a year in office. The egoistic personality clashes within the Janata Dal Following the withdrawal of support by the BJP, the national front government headed by Shri V.P. Singh had lost majority support in the Lok Sabha. But he refused to resign and instead offered to prove his majority on the floor of the House but finally defeated. The splitters up group of Janata Dal headed by Shri Chandra Sekhar with 54 members in the Lok Sabha formed the fourth coalition government at centre on the 10th November, 1990 with an outside support of the congress (I) party but lasted only a few months. The sixth Coalition Government of 13 parties was formed on 1st June, 1996 headed by Shri H.D. Deve Gowda. This government was formed by the alliance of regional parties which was supported by the national political party and the congress I. Mr. H.D. Deve Gowda as the Prime Minister ruled for 325 days from 1st June 1996 to 21st April 1997. The united front Government changed the Prime Minister and Mr. I.K. Gujral became the prime minister of the seventh Coalition Government. After a few months congress (I) withdrew the support. support on account of the internal politics and the Coalition Government was defeated. Thus, the 13 months old BJP led Coalition Government at the centre headed, by Shri A.B. Vajpayee was collapsed and paved the way for the formation of an alternative government. In 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a comfortable majority and A.B. Vajpayee became Prime Minister of India for the third time on 13th October. In addition, the NDA Government at the centre is the only coalition government in Independent India of 18 different political parties to complete a full term of 5 years in office. This is the ninth coalition government in the series, which were formed by the non-congress parties since 1977. After the 2004 General Elections to the Lok Sabha, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the congress (I) party, formed the tenth coalition Government at the centre on 13th may, 2004 under the Prime Minister-ship of Dr. Manmohan Singh, with outside support from the left parties. The UPA Coalition government had completed 5 year on 13th May 2009. The 2009 general Elections to the Lok Sabha, the united progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the congress (I) party had formed eleventh coalition government. In the general election 2014 to the 16th Lok Sabha, BJP was single national majority party with 282 seats and total seats of NDA was 336. NDA formed coalition government by Shri Narendra Modi as 15th Prime Minister of India and took sworn on 26th may 2014.

Coalition governments involve the participation of multiple parties for decision making in the Parliament and it is highly efficient for the voters to voice their issues and demands because parties are representatives of the common people. Coalitions are also significant for the diversification of representation of the public. This prevents the government from focusing on any one class of society and ensures that policymaking is uniform for everyone in the country.

1. Chakrabarthy, Bidyut (2006). Forging power: Coalition politics in India, New Delhi,Oxford press (ed), 3. Prakash, Chandra (2006). Coalition Politics in India, New Delhi, Anmol publications, Sahni, N.C. (1971). The theory of Coalition, Jalandhar, Academic publishing Corporations, (ed), 4. Singh, Mahindra Prasad and Anil Mishra (2004). Coalition politics in India: Problems and prospects, New Delhi, Manohar Publishers

1. www.thehindu.com 2. www.britannica.com 3. www.vedantu.com

Guest Lecturer, Raja Rammohun Roy Mahavidyalaya, Radhanagar, Khanakul, Hooghly, West Bengal