Jan Morcha | |
|---|---|
| Founder | V. P. Singh |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Split from | Indian National Congress |
| Merged into | Janata Dal |
| Political position | Centre-left[1] |
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TheJan Morcha (translation:People's Front) was an Indian political party founded byV. P. Singh after he left theIndian National Congress party in 1987 upon being dismissed as Defence Minister by Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi.[citation needed] Together withArun Nehru,Arif Mohammed Khan,Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,Vidya Charan Shukla,Ram Dhan,Raj Kumar Rai andSatyapal Malik, Singh formed a nucleus of opposition to the Rajiv Gandhi government that had a commanding majority in theLok Sabha.[2]
Following the increasing visibility of his stand against corruption in public life and his growing popularity, the social-democratic parties like theJanata Party,Lok Dal andCongress (S) – many of them survivors of the original Janata Party of 1977 – came together and merged with the Jan Morcha to form theJanata Dal to contest the1989 general elections. In those elections, theNational Front, together with the Leftist and Rightist parties opposed to the Congress gained a plurality of seats. Subsequently V. P. Singh served as prime minister of India for eleven months.
Following the Janata Dal's time in power and its subsequent split and decline, V. P. Singh, after surviving a battle with cancer, re-formed the Jan Morcha in 2005 with socialist actor-politicianRaj Babbar as its public face.[3] In the2007 Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, the party fielded 118 candidates, but other thanDharmpal Singh, who won fromDayalbagh, defeating Kishan Lal Baghel of theBahujan Samaj Party by three thousand votes (1.7%), no other candidate was successful.[4] After this poor showing, Babbar joined the Congress, and Singh's elder sonAjeya Pratap Singh took over the reins of the party in anticipation of the 2009 general elections.[5]
In March 2009 Ajeya Singh announced that Jan Morcha was to be merged with theLok Janshakti Party (LJP), of which he became a vice president and its Lok Sabha candidate fromFatehpur constituency.[6] However, later,Ram Vilas Paswan joined hands with theSamajwadi Party (SP) ofMulayam Singh Yadav and the RJD ofLaloo Prasad Yadav, to form aFourth front, and Mulayam Singh declared that the LJP would not contest any seats in UP. Ajeya Singh then contested as Jan Morcha candidate from Fatehpur, but lost toRakesh Sachan of the SP. The Jan Morcha was renamed as the National Jan Morcha in June 2009 and dedicated to farmer's causes and to forging a third alternative in national politics.[7] A month later, the Jan Morcha merged with theIndian National Congress.[8]
... opposition parties of the Center-Left (Janata Party, Lok Dal(A), Lok Dal(B) and the Jan Morcha.