The Jan Morcha ( translation: ''People's Front'') was an Indian political party founded by V. P. Singh after he left the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

party in 1987 upon being dismissed as Defence Minister by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Together with Arun Nehru, Arif Mohammed Khan, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,

Vidya Charan Shukla Vidya Charan Shukla (2 August 1929 – 11 June 2013) was an Indian politician whose political career spanned six decades. He was predominantly a member of the Indian National Congress, but also had spells in Jan Morcha, Janata Dal, Samajw ...

, Ram Dhan, Raj Kumar Rai and Satyapal Malik, Singh formed a nucleus of opposition to the Rajiv Gandhi government that had a commanding majority in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

. Following the increasing visibility of his stand against corruption in public life and his growing popularity, the social-democratic parties like the

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

Lok Dal Lokdal or Lok Dal is an Indian political party based on agriculture policies, founded by former Prime Minister Charan Singh. It was founded on 26 September 1979 by merging Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party (Limaye) and Orissa Janata Party ...

and Congress (S) – many of them survivors of the original Janata Party of 1977 – came together and merged with the Jan Morcha to form the Janata Dal to fight the 1989 general elections. In which, the National Front, together with the Leftist parties and Rightist parties opposed to the Congress gained a plurality of seats. Subsequently V. P. Singh served as prime minister 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-politician

Raj Babbar Raj Babbar (born 23 June 1952) is an Indian Hindi and Punjabi language, Punjabi film actor and politician belonging to Indian National Congress. He is a three-time member of the Lok Sabha and a two-time member of the Rajya Sabha. He was the sta ...

as its public face. In the 2007 Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections, the party fielded 118 candidates, but other than Dharmpal Singh, who won from Dayalbagh, defeating Kishan Lal Baghel of the

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with Religious ...

by three thousand votes (1.7%), no other candidate was successful. After this poor showing, Babbar joined the Congress, and Singh's elder son Ajeya Pratap Singh took over the reins of the party in anticipation of the 2009 general elections. In March 2009 Ajeya Singh announced that Jan Morcha was to be merged with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), of which he became a vice president and its Lok Sabha candidate from Fatehpur constituency. However, later, Ram Vilas Paswan joined hands with the Samajwadi Party (SP) of Mulayam Singh Yadav and the RJD of Laloo Prasad Yadav, to form a ''Fourth 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 to Rakesh 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. A month later, the Jan Morcha merged with the

.Jan Morcha merges with Congress
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References

{{Janata Parivar parties V. P. Singh administration Defunct political parties in Uttar Pradesh 1987 establishments in India Janata Parivar Janata Dal Political parties established in 1987