NEW DELHI: Even as some factions of Janata Parivar finally decided to merge on Wednesday, they have a chequered past. Despite undergoing several splits and mergers in the last 25 years, most of the factions of the original Janata Party continued to use ‘Janata’ whenever they formed a new outfit.
Originally, the Janata Party was formed as unification of political parties that opposed imposition of emergency and tasted power at the Centre for the first time in the history of non-Congress government. With the Janata Morcha, Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Lok Dal, Swatantra Party, the Socialist Party of India of Raj Narain and George Fernandes, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) joined together to form Janata Party in 1977.
With the socialists and Lohiates fighting each other on issues of ideology and corruption, the Janata Parivar split into several splinter parties and regional outfits. After the Bofors scam came to light, Janata factions Lok Dal, Congress (S), and Jan Morcha joined hands to form the Janata Dal on October 11, 1988 - the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan. With support from regional parties like Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of NT Rama Rao, the Janata Dal could lead the first ever government at the Centre - the National Front government led by VP Singh after the Janata experiment in 1978.
After its fall, the rival faction of VP Singh, led by Chandrasekhar, formed the Samajwadi Janata Party in November 1990. When Janata Dal split into regional parties, Mulayam Singh founded the Samajwadi Party (SP) in October 1992. Internal fight in Janata Dal resulted in the formation of Samata Party in April 1994 by George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar.
The feud between Yadav leaders, Lalu and Sharad, in Janata Dal resulted in the formation of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by Lalu Prasad Yadav in July 1997.
Not convinced with the decisions of Janata Dal leadership, Naveen Patnaik came out to form the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in December 1997.
Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda came out of Janata Dal over differences on the issue of support to National Democratic Alliance before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections and formed the Janata Dal (Secular).
With the merger of the Sharad Yadav faction of Janata Dal and Samata, the Janata Dal (United) was formed on October 30, 2003. In between, Ram Vilas Paswan came out of Janata Dal to form the Lok Janshkati Party in 2000. On August 11 2013, Dr Subramanian Swamy merged his faction of Janata Party with the BJP.