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542 of the 544 seats in the Lok Sabha 272 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 321,174,327 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 60.49% ( 5.22pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in India between 16 and 20 March 1977 to elect the members of the sixth Lok Sabha. [2] The elections took place during the Emergency period, which expired on 21 March 1977, shortly before the final results were announced. [1]
The elections resulted in a heavy defeat for the Indian National Congress (R), with the incumbent Prime Minister and INC(R) party leader Indira Gandhi losing her seat in Rae Bareli, while her son Sanjay lost his seat in Amethi. [3] The call for restoration of democracy by revoking the Emergency is considered to be a major reason for the sweeping victory for the opposition Janata Alliance, [4] whose leader Morarji Desai was sworn in as the fourth Prime Minister of India on 24 March. At 81, Desai became the oldest man to be elected Prime Minister of India.
The sixth general elections, which were conducted for 542 seats in single-member constituencies, represented 27 Indian states and union territories. [5] These 542 constituencies remained same until 2004 Indian general elections for the 14th Lok Sabha.
The Emergency declared by the Indira Gandhi led Congress(R) government was the core issue in the 1977 elections. Civil liberties were suspended during the national emergency from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977 and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assumed vast powers.
Gandhi had become unpopular for her decision and paid for it during the elections. On 18 January, Gandhi called for fresh elections and released some political prisoners. Many remained in prison until she was ousted from office and a new prime minister took over. [6] On 20 January, four opposition parties, the Indian National Congress (Organisation), the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Praja Socialist Party, decided to fight the elections under a single banner called the Janata alliance. [1] The alliance used the symbol allocated to Bhartiya Lok Dal as their symbol on the ballot papers.
The Janata Alliance reminded voters of the excesses and human rights violations during the Emergency, like compulsory sterilisation and imprisonment of political leaders. The Janata campaign said the elections would decide whether India would have "democracy or dictatorship." [7] The Congress(R) looked jittery. Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram quit the party in the first week of February; other notable Congress(R) stalwarts who crossed the floor with Jagjivan Ram before the election were Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna and Nandini Satpathy.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Janata Party | 78,062,828 | 41.32 | 295 | +209 | |
Indian National Congress (R) | 65,211,589 | 34.52 | 154 | –198 | |
Communist Party of India (Marxist) | 8,113,659 | 4.29 | 22 | –3 | |
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 5,480,378 | 2.90 | 18 | New | |
Communist Party of India | 5,322,088 | 2.82 | 7 | –16 | |
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | 3,323,320 | 1.76 | 2 | –21 | |
Indian National Congress (Organisation) | 3,252,217 | 1.72 | 3 | –13 | |
Shiromani Akali Dal | 2,373,331 | 1.26 | 9 | +8 | |
Peasants and Workers Party of India | 1,030,232 | 0.55 | 5 | +5 | |
Republican Party of India (Khobragade) | 956,072 | 0.51 | 2 | +2 | |
Revolutionary Socialist Party | 851,164 | 0.45 | 4 | +1 | |
All India Forward Bloc | 633,644 | 0.34 | 3 | +1 | |
Indian Union Muslim League | 565,007 | 0.30 | 2 | 0 | |
Kerala Congress (Pillai Group) | 526,937 | 0.28 | 0 | New | |
Kerala Congress | 491,674 | 0.26 | 2 | –1 | |
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference | 483,192 | 0.26 | 2 | New | |
Muslim League (Opposition) | 318,979 | 0.17 | 0 | New | |
Socialist Unity Centre of India | 280,995 | 0.15 | 0 | 0 | |
Vishal Haryana Party | 192,867 | 0.10 | 0 | –1 | |
Republican Party of India | 155,972 | 0.08 | 0 | –1 | |
All India Jharkhand Party | 126,288 | 0.07 | 1 | 0 | |
United Democratic Front | 124,627 | 0.07 | 1 | New | |
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party | 118,748 | 0.06 | 1 | +1 | |
Jharkhand Party | 116,961 | 0.06 | 0 | New | |
Manipur Peoples Party | 109,130 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |
Shoshit Samaj Dal (Akhil Baharatiya) | 96,753 | 0.05 | 0 | New | |
Revolutionary Communist Party of India | 45,047 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | |
Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti | 35,916 | 0.02 | 0 | New | |
Hindu Mahasabha | 35,419 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | |
Bihar Prant Hul Jharkhand | 27,116 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad | 26,169 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
All India Labour Party | 17,191 | 0.01 | 0 | New | |
Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League | 12,509 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
All India Shiromani Baba Jivan Singh Mazabhi Dal | 5,868 | 0.00 | 0 | New | |
Independents | 10,393,617 | 5.50 | 9 | –5 | |
Appointed Anglo-Indians | 2 | 0 | |||
Total | 188,917,504 | 100.00 | 544 | +23 | |
Valid votes | 188,917,504 | 97.25 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 5,346,411 | 2.75 | |||
Total votes | 194,263,915 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 321,174,327 | 60.49 | |||
Source: ECI |
The elections in India's largest state Uttar Pradesh, historically a Congress(R) stronghold, turned against Gandhi. Dhanagare says the structural reasons included the emergence of a strong and united opposition, disunity and weariness within the Congress(R), an effective opposition and the failure of Gandhi in controlling the mass media, which was under censorship during the Emergency. The structural factors allowed voters to express their grievances, notably their resentment of the emergency and its authoritarian and repressive policies. One grievance often mentioned was the 'Nasbandi' (vasectomy) campaign in rural areas. The middle class also emphasised on the curbing of freedom of speech throughout the country. [8]
Meanwhile, Congress(R) hit an all-time low in West Bengal, according to the Gangulys, because of poor discipline and factionalism among Congress(R) activists as well as numerous defections that weakened the party. Opponents emphasised the issues of corruption within the Congress(R) and appealed to a deep desire by the voters for fresh leadership. [9] The Congress(R), however, did well in southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The results were mixed in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, although the Janata alliance won all the seats in Mumbai.
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of India.
Charan Singh, better known as Chaudhary Charan Singh, was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and author who was a central figure among the agrarian community in India during late 1970s and early 1980s. Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives. He briefly served as the 5th prime minister of India from July 1979 to August 1979 and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During prime ministership he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). Singh also briefly served as deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of farmers", after his life has been dedicated to advocating for the wellbeing and rights of farmers. He is the first leader outside the Indian National Congress who formed government in the northern India and became 5th chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.
The Janata Party abbreviated JP, lit. People's Party) is an unrecognized political party in India. It was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress and Janata leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India's history.
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The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country.
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General elections were held in India on 3 and 6 January 1980 to elect the members of the 7th Lok Sabha. The Janata Party alliance came into power in the 1977 general elections amidst public anger with the Indian National Congress (R) and the Emergency. However, its position was weak; the loose coalition barely held on to a majority with only 295 seats in the Lok Sabha and never quite had a firm grip on power. Bharatiya Lok Dal leaders Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram, who had quit the Congress, were members of the Janata alliance but were at loggerheads with Prime Minister Morarji Desai.
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The Congress for Democracy (CFD) was an Indian political party founded in 1977 by Jagjivan Ram. It was formed after Jagjivan Ram, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, and Nandini Satpathy left the Indian National Congress of Indira Gandhi and denounced her rule during the Indian Emergency. The party contested the 1977 Indian general election with the Janata alliance and later merged with it.
The Janata Morcha was a coalition of Indian political parties formed in 1974 to oppose the government of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Congress (R) party. The coalition was an integral part of the popular movement against the Emergency rule of Indira Gandhi and the direct predecessor of the Janata Party, which defeated the Congress (R) in the 1977 Indian general election to form the first non-Congress government in independent India. It was formed by Jayaprakash Narayan and Morarji Desai, chief of the main opposition Congress (O) party.
The State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain was a 1975 case heard by the Allahabad High Court that found the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral malpractices. The ruling on the case that had been filed by the defeated opposition candidate, Raj Narain, Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha invalidated Gandhi's win and barred her from holding elected office for six years. The decision caused a political crisis in India that led to the imposition of a state of emergency by Gandhi's government from 1975 to 1977.
The premiership of Morarji Desai extended from 24 March 1977 to 15 July 1979. In the 1977 Indian general election Morarji Desai led the Janata Party to victory against the Congress party. Upon taking office, Morarji Desai became the first Indian Prime Minister not belonging to the Congress party.
Chandra Shekhar, known as Jananayak, was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who had never held any prior government office.
The 1977 Indian general election was held to constitute the 6th Lok Sabha. Polling was held between 16 and 20 March 1977. It was held during the Emergency period, which ceased on 21 March 1977, right before the final results were announced.
Rashtriya Sanjay Manch (RSM) was a political party founded by Maneka Gandhi, the widow of Indian politician Sanjay Gandhi and estranged daughter-in-law of then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, on April 3, 1983. The party was established along with Akbar Ahmad Dumpy, with a focus on youth empowerment and employment. RSM was launched with a grand inaugural convention at Feroze Shah Kotla grounds in New Delhi, which was attended by around 5,000 delegates from across the country. In 1988, the Rashtriya Sanjay Manch was merged with the Janata Dal, which was the main opposition party at that time.