Janata Party

…forces in leading a new Janata Morcha (“People’s Front”) movement against government corruption and Gandhi’s allegedly inept leadership. The mass movement gathered momentum throughout the first half of 1975 and reached its climax that June, when the Congress Party lost a crucial by-election in Gujarat and Gandhi herself was found…

…Desai in quickly revitalizing the Janata movement, whose campaign warned Indians that the elections might be their last chance to choose between “democracy and dictatorship.” In the elections, held in February, Indira lost her Lok Sabha seat, and Sanjay lost his bid for one. Most of their loyal followers also…

…of the Emergency, the opposition Janata (People’s) Party scored a landslide victory over the Congress Party, winning 295 out of 544 seats (542 elected, 2 nominated) in the Lok Sabha (the lower chamber of the Indian Parliament) against 154 for the Congress Party; Gandhi herself lost to her Janata Party…

…he became active in the Janata Party, founded in 1977 by a diverse group of political parties opposed to the Emergency. After Gandhi ended the Emergency that same year, elections were held. The Janata Party swept them, ending the 30-year rule of the Congress Party.

…and joined the newly formed Janata (People’s) Party (JP) in opposition to Congress, winning a seat in the Haryana state assembly and then becoming the state’s chief minister. Internal dissensions in the JP forced him to resign from office in 1979, but the following year he garnered the first of…

…Shekhar became president of the Janata Party, which headed a coalition government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai from 1977 to 1979. In 1988 Shekhar’s Janata Party merged with several other opposition parties to form the Janata Dal Party under the leadership of V.P. Singh, who subsequently became prime minister. After…

…Congress (Organisation [O])—to form the Janata Party, which resoundingly defeated Indira Gandhi’s Congress Party in that year’s general election. Morarji Desai was sworn in as the prime minister of the Janata Party government, and Vajpayee was made minister of external affairs.