Janata Party
Janata Party
Raj Narain, a Socialist, had filed a legal writ alleging electoral malpractice against Indira Gandhi in 1971. On 12 June 1975, Allahabad High Court found her guilty of using corrupt electoral practices in her 1971 election victory over Narain in the Rae Bareli constituency). She was barred from contesting any election for the next six years. Economic problems, corruption and the conviction of Gandhi led to widespread protests against the government, which responded by imposing a State of Emergency. The rationale was that of preserving national security. However, the government introduced press censorship, postponed elections and banned strikes and rallies. Opposition leaders such as Narain, J. B. Kripalani, Jayaprakash Narayan, Anantram Jaiswal, Chandra Shekhar, Biju Patnaik, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Ramnandan Mishra and Morarji Desai were imprisoned, along with thousands of other political activists. When the Emergency was lifted and a new election called in 1977, opposition leaders joined to form the JP. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress (R) and JP leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India's history). Narain defeated Gandhi at Rae Bareli in that election. The new JP-led government reversed many Emergency-era decrees and opened official investigations into Emergency-era abuses. Although several major foreign policy and economic reforms were attempted, continuous in-fighting and ideological differences made the Janata government unable to effectively address national problems. In July 1979 Desai was forced to resign and was replaced by Charan Singh. Popular disenchantment with the political infighting and ineffective government led to the resurgence of Gandhi and her new Indian National Congress (I)) party.
Janata Party
JP's success was short-lived and, in the 1980 general election, the Congress (I) was returned to power. JP's heterogeneous nature led to its fragmentation. The first major split occurred in July 1979 when Narain formed his own social-democratic Janata Party (Secular)). Shortly after the 1980 election, Hindu nationalists regrouped in the Bharatiya Janata Party, meant as a successor to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. In 1980 the Janata Party (Secular) was merged into the Lokdal, which would finally merge into the larger Janata Dal, which led the government in 1989–1991 and later experienced a fragmentation similar to JP's. Direct or indirect spliter parties of the Janata Dal, some of which regional, have included the socialist Samata Party, the Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)) or Janata Dal (Socialist), the Janata Dal (United)), the Janata Dal (Secular)), the socialist Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Biju Janata Dal and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
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