Jan Morcha

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The Jan Morcha (literally, the 'People's Front') was founded by Vishwanath Pratap Singh when he was dismissed from his post of Defence Minister and subsequently left the Congress Party in 1987. Together with Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammed Khan he formed a nucleus of opposition to the government of Rajiv Gandhi which at that time possessed a commanding majority in the Lok Sabha.

Following the increasing visibility of his stand against corruption in public life and his growing popularity, the other social-democratic parties, like the Lok Dal - many of them survivors of the original Janata Party - came together and merged with the Jan Morcha to form the Janata Dal to fight the 1989 General Elections, in which the anti-Congress Opposition as a whole gained a plurality of seats.

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 as its public face. The party is expected to contest the Vidhan Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2007, focussing, according to the party's manifesto, on "law and order issues and the problems of farmers, weavers and the youth."