Coalitions and defections after 1967

Detail

1. Why 1967 changed state politics

• The 1967 general elections (fourth general election; Lok Sabha and state assemblies voted together) gave the Congress a clear majority in far fewer states than before.
• In many states, no single party won a majority. This is a hung assembly (a house where no party has more than half the seats).
• So two new things became common in politics:
• Coalitions: several parties join hands to form a government.

• Defections: elected members switch parties.

• After the 1967 elections, the Congress lost control of seven state governments when MLAs shifted their loyalty to other parties [2].

2. Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) governments

• Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) ("joint legislators' party"): a joint group of non-Congress parties in a state legislature. It formed the state government after 1967.
• Common glue: dislike of the Congress, not a shared ideology. Partners ran from left to right, so their ideas often clashed.

State (1967)	Who joined	Chief Minister
Bihar (SVD)	Socialists (SSP, PSP), CPI, Jana Sangh	Mahamaya Prasad Sinha
Punjab ("Popular United Front")	Two rival Akali groups (Sant group and Master group), CPI, CPI(M), SSP, Republican Party, Jana Sangh	Gurnam Singh
West Bengal (United Front)	Non-Congress front that included the left parties	Ajoy Mukherjee
Kerala (United Front)	Front led by the left	E.M.S. Namboodiripad
Uttar Pradesh	Charan Singh left the Congress with his supporters (1967) and formed a non-Congress government	Charan Singh

• Ideological mismatch: in Bihar and Punjab, communists (CPI, CPI(M)) and the Hindu-nationalist Jana Sangh sat in the same cabinet.
• NCERT cartoon: it shows Charan Singh's later attempt in 1974 to build a non-communist front. This shows that front-building went on after the SVD period.

3. How the SVD governments fell

• Most SVD governments did not last long. They ended in one of three ways:
• Lost majority: partners or members walked out, so the government lost its majority on the floor.
• New combination: a new group of parties and members formed another government.

• President's rule (Art. 356) (the Union takes over a state when its government cannot run as the Constitution requires).

• How President's rule works (in steps):

• The Governor reports that the state's constitutional machinery has broken down, or the President is satisfied of this in some other way.
• The President issues a proclamation under Art. 356.
• The state assembly is suspended or dissolved, and the Union runs the state's executive.
• Parliament (or the President, under its authority) makes the state's laws.
• Both Houses of Parliament must approve the proclamation. (Details in emergency-provisions.)

4. Defection

• Defection: an elected member leaves the party on whose symbol (the party sign printed on the ballot) he or she won the election.
• The Y.B. Chavan Committee defined it as "the voluntary giving up of allegiance of a political party on whose symbol a legislator was elected, except when such action was the result of the decision of the party" [2][4].
• Breakaway Congress legislators brought down Congress governments and put non-Congress governments in power in:
• Haryana
• Madhya Pradesh: Govind Narayan Singh became CM in 1967.

• Uttar Pradesh: Charan Singh.

• Scale of defection: in just four years (1967–71), there were 142 defections in Parliament and 1,969 defections in state assemblies across India [3][5].

• Office as the reward: the Chavan Committee found that 116 of 210 defecting legislators in seven states were given ministerial posts [2]. Ministerial posts were the main reward for switching sides.

5. The story of "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram"

• Gaya Lal, a Haryana MLA, changed parties three times in a fortnight in 1967:

• Congress → United Front → back to Congress → United Front again, this time within nine hours.

• Rao Birendra Singh brought him before the press in Chandigarh and said, "Gaya Ram was now Aya Ram" ("the one who left has now come back").

• "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" became the common Indian phrase for a legislator who keeps switching parties [3][5].
• Result: the instability was so serious that Haryana came under President's rule in November 1967.

6. Response: from the Chavan Committee to the Tenth Schedule

• Y.B. Chavan Committee on Defections
• The Lok Sabha passed a resolution in 1967. The government then set up a committee under Home Minister Y.B. Chavan [4].
• The committee reported in 1969 (Report of the Committee on Defections).

• It also suggested a smaller Council of Ministers at the Centre and in the states, to reduce the number of posts that could be used as rewards [4].

• Failed bills (attempts at a law that did not pass) [2]:

• 1973: Uma Shankar Dikshit.

• 1978: Shanti Bhushan.

• 52nd Amendment Act, 1985

• Moved by Ashoke Kumar Sen [2].
• It added the Tenth Schedule (the anti-defection law). Legislators can be punished for what they do both inside the House (for example, voting against the party whip, the party's formal voting order) and outside it [4].
• Penalty: loss of the seat in Parliament or the state legislature [4].
• Protected exceptions: a split backed by one-third of a legislature party, and a merger backed by two-thirds [2].

• The Presiding Officer (Speaker or Chairman) was made the sole judge of defection cases [2].

• Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu (18 February 1992)

• A Constitution Bench (five or more judges) upheld the Tenth Schedule [6].
• It struck down the clause that put the Presiding Officer's decision beyond court review. Courts can now review that decision through judicial review (the courts' power to check whether an action follows the Constitution) [6].

• Courts will not step in before the Presiding Officer gives an order [6].

• 91st Amendment Act, 2003

• It removed the one-third "split" exception, as the Pranab Mukherjee committee had recommended [2][4].
• It put into law the 1967 Chavan advice: the size of the Council of Ministers was capped, and defectors were barred from becoming ministers until they win a fresh election [4].
• Cap: ministers, including the PM, cannot exceed 15% of the Lok Sabha's total strength (Art. 75(1A)). In a state, ministers, including the CM, cannot exceed 15% of the Legislative Assembly (Art. 164(1A)) [7][8].
• Details in political-parties.

Stage	Year	What it did
Lok Sabha resolution and Chavan Committee	1967 (report 1969)	Defined defection; linked it to rewards of office; suggested smaller ministries
Failed bills	1973, 1978	No law passed
52nd Amendment (Tenth Schedule)	1985	Disqualification; 1/3 split and 2/3 merger exceptions; Presiding Officer decides
Kihoto Hollohan	1992	Presiding Officer's decision open to judicial review
91st Amendment	2003	Split exception removed; 15% cap on ministries; defectors cannot become ministers until re-elected

7. Significance

• 1967 changed the rules of the game. Hung assemblies, coalitions and floor-crossing (switching sides in the House) became regular features of Indian politics.
• Coalitions as a model for the Centre: the SVD experiments foreshadowed coalition governments at the Centre after 1989. In NCERT, a student remarks that coalitions are something "we see them all the time".
• One-party dominance weakened: the "Congress system" lost its hold over the states. Use of Art. 356 against unstable state governments became a federal flashpoint (a recurring source of conflict between the Centre and the states).

Prelims Hooks

• Samyukta Vidhayak Dal = a joint legislative party of non-Congress parties that formed state governments after 1967. In Bihar it was led by Mahamaya Prasad Sinha.
• Punjab's "Popular United Front" (CM Gurnam Singh) included both Akali groups (Sant and Master), CPI, CPI(M), SSP, Republican Party and Jana Sangh.
• Govind Narayan Singh: Congress defectors installed his non-Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in 1967.
• "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" comes from Haryana MLA Gaya Lal (1967). The quip was made by Rao Birendra Singh. Haryana came under President's rule in November 1967.
• 1967–71: 142 defections in Parliament and 1,969 in state assemblies [3][5].
• Y.B. Chavan Committee (set up 1967, reported 1969): of 210 defecting legislators in seven states, 116 became ministers [2].
• 52nd Amendment, 1985 → Tenth Schedule. 91st Amendment, 2003 → split exception removed and ministries capped at 15% (Art. 75(1A), 164(1A)) [2][7][8].
• Trap: the merger exception (two-thirds) still exists. Only the split exception (one-third) was removed in 2003 [2].
• Kihoto Hollohan (1992): the Tenth Schedule is valid, but the Speaker's disqualification decision is subject to judicial review [6].

Mains Points

• Coalitions of convenience vs. coalitions of ideas: the SVDs joined communists and the Jana Sangh only to oppose the Congress. They had no common programme, so they collapsed quickly. Post-1989 coalitions learnt to draft common minimum programmes (shared agendas agreed by coalition partners). Use this in GS-I answers on how party politics changed after 1967.
• Defection and the reward of office: the Chavan Committee's 116-of-210 finding shows that ministerial posts drove floor-crossing [2]. That is why the 2003 reforms capped ministry size and barred defectors from becoming ministers until re-elected [4]. Prevention focused on rewards, not just punishment.
• Anti-defection law: stability vs. a member's freedom: the Tenth Schedule curbs "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" politics. But it also gives the party whip control over legislators, and it leaves the decision with a Speaker who may favour one party. Kihoto Hollohan only partly fixed this through judicial review [2][6].
• Federalism and Art. 356: the instability after 1967 (for example, Haryana in November 1967) led to frequent use of President's rule. This opened a long debate on misuse of Art. 356 against state governments ruled by other parties (link to emergency-provisions).