NEW DELHI, December 4: Coalition history repeated itself as the eleventh Lok Sabha, which lasted barely one-and-a-half years, was dissolved by President K R Narayanan on Thursday.

The minority I K Gujral government, the second by the United Front in since the May 1996 general elections, collapsed on November 28 when the Congress, headed by Sitaram Kesri, withdrew support to it.

On three of the four occasions, mid-term polls were called after the Congress pulled the plug. In 1979, the then Congress President Indira Gandhi withdrew support to the Charan Singh-led Janata (S) Government. Charan Singh had come to power, propped up by the Congress, after the fall of Morarji Desai's `conglomerate' Janata Party. Charan Singh tendered his resignation on August 20, 1979 after being in power for only 24 days and was the only prime minister who never faced the Lok Sabha.

Differences within the Morarji Desai government which came to power in March, 1977, surfaced less than a year later when Charan Singh, the then home minister, wrote to Desai about charges of corruption against his son Kanti Desai.

In a few days between July 9 to July 17, 1977, defections reduced the strength of the ruling Janata Party in the Lok Sabha from 302 to 227. The then industry minister George Fernandes resigned on July 15 in protest against Desai's insistence to continue in office despite the party being reduced to a minority. Desai quit office the same day as the revolt within the party mounted.

Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy dissolved the sixth Lok Sabha on August 22, 1979, nearly two years and seven months before its five-year term was to end.

This was the second time that the Lower House had been dissolved before its term ended, the first time being on December 27, 1970 when the then president V V Giri dissolved the fourth Lok Sabha on the advice of prime minister Indira Gandhi who preferred to appeal to the electorate before the statutory time limit.

The sixth, ninth and the eleventh Lok Sabha had governments which succeeded Congress governments ( headed by Indira in 1977, Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 and P V Narasimha Rao in 1996).

V P Singh's ascendancy to prime minister-ship in the National Front govt in 1989 supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party was aborted as the latter withdrew support following the stopping of a BJP rath yatra and arrest of its leaders. The immediate impact of V P Singh's fall was a split in the Janata Dal with Chandra Shekhar and Devi Lal parting ways to form the Janata Dal(S).

With barely 50-odd MPs on his flank, Chandra Shekhar took over as the ninth prime minister with outside support from Rajiv's Congress. However, the Congress, piqued by what it called surveillance mounted by the government on the residence of party president Rajiv Gandhi, initiated a heated debate in the Lok Sabha.

An emotional Shekhar announced his decision to resign just before he was to seek approval of the House for the vote of thanks to president R Venkataraman's address to the joint session. The decision took even the Congress party by surprise. Venkataraman dissolved the Lok Sabha on March 13, 1991.

P V Narasimha Rao, who came to power after the May '91 elections in the midst of which Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, managed to last full term despite beginning his tenure slightly below the majority mark in the Lok Sabha.

Finally, the last parliamentary elections in May 1996 threw up a hung house with the BJP emerging as the single-largest party. President Shanker Dayal Sharma invited the BJP to form the government, but party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee could survive for only 13 days as prime minister. The Vajpayee government quit moments before the house was to vote on the confidence motion, paving the way for H D Deve Gowda to head the United Front coalition government with Congress support from outside.

After the Congress withdrew support to his government demanding a change of guard in march this year, Deve Gowda became the second prime minister to lose a vote of confidence in the house.

I K Gujral, who has been at the helm since April this year, had to bow out after Congress president Sitaram Kesri withdrew support following the the UF government's refusal to drop ministers from the DMK which had been "indicted" by the Jain panel inquiring into the conspiracy behind Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.