Indian People's Front
The front primarily worked for the social and economic upliftment of Adivasis, Dalits and impoverished sections of society and mobilised them through the means of unions, rallies and conventions.[5] On 15 October 1982, the front organised a mass rally against the Bihar Press Bill which witnessed a participation of 100,000 people according to mainstream media sources.[10] On 19 April 1986, the police opened fire on a protest gathering of landless farmers (primarily dalits) which resulted in the deaths of 23 people in Arwal, Bihar.Civil rights activists described the massacre as part of a systematic eradication of the moblisation of impoverished people by branding them as "Naxalite" and killing them in police encounters in collaboration with private armies and militias of rich zamindars (landlords) such as the Ranvir Sena.[16] On 8 October 1990, a national rally with the slogan of dam bandho kaam do (check prices and give jobs) was organised in Delhi by the front.In the same year, four of its members in the Bihar Legislative Assembly defected to the Janata Dal under the leadership of Lalu Prasad Yadav at the height of polarisation on the Mandal issue.The rally was reported to been a gathering of tens of thousands of bare-footed and starving workers who had marched to Patna from all over Bihar; some having traveled over 100 kilometres (62 mi) on foot to reach the venue.