Janata Dal: …Make, break, make break…

The idea

• The word ‘Janata’ gained currency in the Jabalpur LS bypoll in 1975 when a combined opposition fielded Socialist leader Sharad Yadav as a janata (people’s candidate). His victory invested the word with success.

The origin

The Jan Morcha founded by V P Singh, Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan after their exit from the Congress became a precursor to the formation of the Janata Dal.

The team

• The Janata Dal came into being after V P Singh’s victory in the Allahabad Lok Sabha bypoll in 1988. Chandra Shekhar, Biju Patnaik, George Fernandes, Ram Krishna Hegde, Devi Lal—all threw their lot with him.

The splits

• The JD came to power in 1989, but within two years, Chandra Shekhar and Devi Lal staged a coup, split the party and formed a government with Congress support.

• In 1992, Mulayam Singh Yadav breaks off to form the Samajwadi Party. He clinches 36 seats in the Lok Sabha elections that year.

• In 1994, Fernandes and Nitish Kumar broke away, floated the Samata Party.

• In 1997, JD broke again, with Sharad Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav leading rival factions. Laloo founded his own Rashtriya Janata Dal.

• A year later, Naveen Patnaik floated the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa to fight the Lok Sabha polls.

• In 1999, H.D. Deve Gowda fell out with Sharad Yadav and founded the Janata Dal (Secular).

• Ram Vilas Paswan came out of the JD(U) in 2000 and set up the Lok Janshakti Party.

• Hegde and S R Bommai launched the All India Janata Dal in 2002. The next year, it was rechristened All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD).

The homecoming

Fernandes and Sharad Yadav reunited in 2003. The former merged his Samata Party with the JD(U).

The tradition

• Siddaramaiah was expelled by Deve Gowda from the JD(S) in 2005. He joined the AIPJD.

• On January 27, 2006 Deve Gowda quits the JD(S) presidency after son H D Kumaraswamy leads a revolt by 46 of 51 party MLAs in Karnataka for a tie-up with the BJP

And the evolution continues…

PRADEEP KAUSHAL