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After decades of one-party rule dominated by Congress, the Indian parliamentary system underwent a new era of Coalition politics where several parties would form a government.
In 1996 the Congress suffered its worst electoral defeat thanks to P. V. Narsimha Rao's unpopularity and the rising tide of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

BJP, the single largest party with a majority, formed the government with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister. Still, he had to resign within 13 days as he couldn't prove the majority in the Lok Sabha.

The Congress was the second largest party but still fell short of numbers to form a government but it pledged support from outside instead of re-elections and the United Front was formed.

The United Front was a coalition of 13 parties consisting of major players like Janata Dal, Congress, Communist Party of India, Telugu Desam Party, Samajwadi Party, DMK, etc. 
H. D. Deve Gowda the sitting Chief Minister of Karnataka was called in to lead the United Front.

He became the Prime Minister and continued for almost 10 months until the coalition factors fell out due to Congress's internal factions and alienation by Gowda.

Several Congress leader's names came in corruption investigations. It was considered by Congress President Kesari as a way to split the Congress party by Gowda. Kesari and Gowda's animosity reached its peak when Gowda allowed BJP to form government in Uttar Pradesh.

![Congress President Kesari led the downfall of United Front; Source: Public Domain](/uploads/Untitled_16_ce4c943387.png)

This led to Kesari pressing United Front into changing the leadership, but no party wanted to get bullied by Congress. With no option left, Congress decided to withdraw its support and the No-Confidence motion was introduced against Gowda. He lost the motion and it seemed that the country will go for its 2nd general election within a year.

Gowda's humiliating defeat didn't end the drama as I. K. Gujral was appointed the new Prime Minister with his tenure ending in the same way as Gowda.

This day marks the downfall of the HD Deve Gowda government, who lost the confidence motion raised in the Lok Sabha- not that there was a lot of confidence to begin with.