Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress(S), and the Jan Morcha led by V. P. Singh on 11 October 1988 on the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan.

It first came to power in 1989, after allegations of corruption, known as the Bofors scandal, caused Rajiv Gandhi's Congress (I) to lose the elections. The National Front coalition that was formed consisted of the Janata Dal and a few smaller parties in the government, and had outside support from the Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party. V. P. Singh was the Prime Minister. In November 1990, this coalition collapsed, and a new government headed by Chandra Shekhar under Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) which had the support of the Congress came to power for a short while.

Its second spell of power began in 1996, when the Janata Dal-led United Front coalition came to power, with outside support from the Congress under Sitaram Kesri, choosing H. D. Deve Gowda as their Prime Minister. The Congress withdrew their support in less than a year, hoping to gain power with the support of various United Front constituent groups, and I. K. Gujral became the next Prime Minister. His government too fell in a few months, and in February 1998, the Janata Dal-led coalition lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sharad Yadav, a politician from the Janata Dal (United) party, is currently^[when?] a member of the Parliament of India representing the Madhepura constituency of Bihar in the Lok Sabha. He had also represented Bihar in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

He is also the current^[when?] convener of the NDA

He was also a member of the Indian Parliament from the Jabalpur constituency in Madhya Pradesh in 1977.

Sharad Yadav, along with others, were named in infamous multi-crore Hawala scandal for receiving 300,000 rupees towards a party fund. He was acquitted by Delhi High Court citing many reasons including that he did not confess and there was a lack of evidence of his guilt.

Rabri Devi (born 1959) served three terms as the Chief Minister, of Bihar, India, as a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal political party, between 1997 and 2005. She is the wife of the Indian politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister of Bihar and former Railway Minister of India. Devi has subsequently beenm^[when?] a Member of the Legislative Council for Bihar Vidhan Parishad.^{[citation needed]}

Rabri Devi Yadav was born to Sib Prasad Chaudhary of Salarkalan, Line Bazar, Gopalganj.

Devi's appointment as the Chief Minister of Bihar was considered as one of the most unexpected and awkward decisions^{[citation needed]} of the entire Indian political history because she was a traditional housewife and had no interest nor any prior experience in politics until then.^{[citation needed]} The move fitted well with the needs of the government in power at the time as Lalu Prasad Yadav had to quit as the Chief Minister of Bihar after the Fodder scam was revealed, but he was alleged to have been controlling the affairs by giving his wife the coveted post of the head of the state government.^{[citation needed]} It was alleged that he continued to act and administer as a de facto chief minister with his wife being a ceremonial head.^{[citation needed]} She became the first woman Chief Minister of Bihar on 25 July 1997.

Jai Prakash (born 16 April 1958) is an Indian politician for the Mohanlalganj (Lok Sabha Constituency) in Uttar Pradesh.

Mathew T Thomas (born 27 September 1961) is an Indian politician who was the Minister of Transport for Kerala from May 2006 to August 2009 in the LDF ministry led by V.S. Achuthanandan. He was elected twice as MLA to the Kerala Assembly, in 1987 and 2006. He was born in Tiruvalla as the son of Rev. T. Thomas and entered politics while he was a student. He is an advocate by profession and has completed his post graduation.

As the Minister of Transport, Mr. Thomas bought the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) out of great financial crisis with a series of reforms. He did a study involving management consultants from Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation and identified areas where KSRTC could generate revenue and reduce cost. The major steps taken were transforming the bus depots into revenue generating shopping malls. As KSRTC owned the key location in every town this could generate income for KSRTC in the form of rent. The corporation is planning to construct as many as 30 modern commercial complex-cum-bus terminals in different parts of the state which are expected to create a monthly revenue of Rs. 100 crores. His hometown Tiruvalla is one of the first towns to get such a shopping mall. The commercial complex in Thiruvalla is a 10-storey structure with state-of-the-art facilities. The corporation was planning to implement the project on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.