National Front (India)

The National Front (Rashtriya Morcha) was a coalition of political parties, led by the Janata Dal, which formed India's government between 1989 and 1990 under the leadership of N. T. Rama Rao as President and V. P. Singh as Convener. The coalition's prime minister was V. P. Singh. The parties in the Front were: Janata Dal of North India, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of Tamil Nadu, Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh, and Asom Gana Parishad of Assam and Congress (S). They were supported from outside by the Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Leader of the Opposition, P. Upendra was a General Secretary of the Front at its formation.

In 1991, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha became a part of the front. The front got defunct before 1996 LS polls when National Front tried to rope in both DMK and AIADMK, resulting in the walking out of the DMK. In 1995, TDP also split with a minority faction siding with N. T. Rama Rao and the majority faction chose to side with Chandrababu Naidu. After Rao died of a heart attack in January 1996, Janata Dal stood by Rama Rao's widow Lakshmi Parvathi while Left parties formed an alliance with the TDP faction led by Chandrababu Naidu.

After the 1996 elections, Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, DMK, TDP, AGP, All India Indira Congress (Tiwari), Left Front (4 parties), Tamil Maanila Congress, National Conference, and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party formed a 13 party United Front. H. D. Deve Gowda became the prime minister after both V. P. Singh and Jyoti Basu declined to become PM. He was later succeeded by I. K. Gujral. Both governments were supported from outside by the Indian National Congress under Sitaram Kesri.