The 1989 Indian general election were held because the previous Lok Sabha had been in power for five years, and the constitution allowed for new elections. Even though Rajiv Gandhi had won the last election by a landslide (mainly due to an overwhelming outpour of popular grief due to his mother's assassination), this election saw him trying to fight off scandals that had marred his administration.
But Singh was soon sacked from the Cabinet and he then resigned from his memberships in the Congress and the Lok Sabha. He formed the Jana Morcha with Arun Nehru and Arif Mohammad Khan and re-entered the Lok Sabha as an Independent MP from Allahabad. Witnessing V. P. Singh's meteoric rise on national stage, Rajiv tried to counter[5] him with another prominent Rajput stalwart Satyendra Narain Singh but failed eventually.
Voting was not held in Assam due to rising unrest and a rebellion of Bodos, culminating into a massacre of 535 people at Gohpur. Moreover, the Union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu was bifurcated into Goa and Daman & Diu with Goa retaining its 2 seats and the latter gaining 1 seat. Thus the total Lok Sabha seats increased by 1 to a total of 543. Since Assam never went to the polls, the total seats contested in this election was down to 529.
V. P. Singh, who was the head of the Janata Dal, was chosen leader of the National Front government with outside support of the BJP & CPI(M).[6] The alliance broke down after Singh supported Bihar's Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's step to arrest Advani in Samastipur to stop his Ram Rath Yatra, which was going to the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya on 23 October 1990. Following this incident, BJP withdrew their support to Singh government, causing them to lose parliamentary vote of confidence on 7 November 1990.[7]
Chandra Shekhar broke away from the Janata Dal with 64 MPs and formed the Samajwadi Janata Party in 1990. He got outside support from the Congress(I) and became the 9th Prime Minister of India. He finally resigned on 21 June 1991, after the Congress(I) withdrew its support alleging that the Chandra Shekhar government was spying on Rajiv Gandhi.
^Krishna, India since Independence (2011), p. 349: 'The Rashtrapati Bhawan communiqué that evening was a commentary on the fractured nature of the mandate: "Since the Congress (I), elected to the Ninth Lok Sabha with the largest membership, has opted not to stake its claim for forming the Government, the President invited Mr. V. P. Singh, leader of the second largest party/group, namely the Janata Dal/National Front to form the Government and take a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha within 30 days of his assuming office."'
2.06 pp)
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