ABSTRACT
The second Janata government ended in 1990 much like the first in 1979: highly personalized factional quarrels among the top leaders of the coalition precipitated a split in the party. Interaction between the internal divisions within the Janata Dal and the dependence of V. P. Singh's government upon the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from outside brought his government down and set the stage for the elections of 1991 and the issues which dominated it. The divisions within the Janata Dal and the confrontation between it and the BJP also produced a more fragmented electoral competition than had occurred in 1989. The distribution of party support bases by region supports the principal finding that there remains a fundamental divide in Uttar Pradesh politics between the Janata parties on the one side and the Congress and the BJP on the other side.
