November 1984, in midst of the turmoil following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. It contested 49 seats in the 1985 Bihar Legislative Assembly election but failed to win a single seat. 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. In August, the IPF organised an armed gherao (picketing) of the Bihar Legislative Assembly in protest of the massacre. The protest is claimed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, to mark a new phase in the assertiveness of revolutionary democratic forces. In the same year, the front organised a "national convention of women" in Kolkata which saw a participation of around 1000 women. The convention took the initiative of giving attention to women's issues while attempting to foster cooperation and synthesis between communist women's organisations and autonomous women's groups. In an address to the convention, the president of the women's cell of the front stated that feminism and Marxism were complementary ideologies. The front also organised an "all India worker's convention" in Ambernath, near Mumbai in November 1987, with trade union leader Datta Samant as the convener. Mandal commission & Economic liberalisation In the 1989 Indian general election, the Indian People's Front (IPF) was able to win the Arrah constituency in Bihar with Rameshwar Prasad as the candidate. It was also able to win 7 seats and secure the second highest vote share in 14 constituencies in the 1990 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. Over the years, the front had acquired a large share of the Scheduled Caste voters from the Indian National Congress in Bihar. It took the position of supporting reservations solely on the basis of social and educational backwardness and supported the implementation of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. In the 1990 election, the IPF had contested 82 seats and received a vote share of 10.56% on the contested seats. During the economic liberalisation in India, it launched campaigns against price hikes and for the right to work, adopting a traditional leftist discourse. On 8 October 1990, a national rally with