Coalitions

The 1967 elections were a turning point, not just because the Congress lost many states, but because they introduced India to the reality of coalition politics. For the first time, no single party could command a majority in several state assemblies. This forced non-Congress parties to do something they had rarely attempted before: work together.

The birth of the SVD government

Since no single non-Congress party had won a majority on its own, various opposition parties came together to form joint legislative parties. In Hindi, these were called Samyukt Vidhayak Dal (SVD). These SVDs then supported non-Congress governments in the states. Because of this, the governments formed after the 1967 elections came to be described as SVD governments.

Ideological incongruence: a defining feature

The most striking feature of these SVD governments was that their coalition partners were ideologically incongruent — they held completely opposite political beliefs.

• Example of Bihar: The SVD government in Bihar included the two socialist parties (SSP and PSP) alongside the Communist Party of India (CPI) on the left and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh on the right. Imagine socialists, communists, and the right-wing Jana Sangh sitting in the same cabinet — it was a marriage of convenience, not of ideology.

• Example of Punjab: In Punjab, the coalition was called the Popular United Front. It was even more diverse. It brought together:

  • The two rival Akali parties of the time — the Sant group and the Master group. …