Janata Party - Government Formation

Government Formation

On the morning of March 24, Jayaprakash Narayan led the newly-elected Janata MPs to Raj Ghat, where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were laid, and administered a pledge to continue Gandhi's work and preserve honesty in serving the nation. Immediately afterwards, the Janata party faced a serious challenge in choosing a leader to become India's new Prime Minister, where the rival bids of party leaders could divide the party and weaken its majority before it took power. Janata party chairman Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram enjoyed the support of a significant number of Janata MPs and the activists brought from their own political parties into the Janata organisation. To avoid a potentially divisive contest, Janata leaders asked Jayaprakash Narayan and Jivatram Kripalani to select the party's leader, pledging to abide by their choice. After a period of deliberation, Narayan selected Morarji Desai to become the chairman of the Janata Parliamentary Party on May 24. Although some leaders such as George Fernandes and Jagjivan Ram hesitated to support Desai and criticised the undemocratic method of selection, Desai's position was soon confirmed and consolidated.

Taking office as Prime Minister, Desai also took charge of the Ministry of Finance. He sought to carefully distribute important posts to satisfy Janata's different constituents and the most powerful party leaders who were rivals for his own position of leadership. Both Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram were accorded the title of Deputy Prime Minister. Charan Singh became the Minister of Home Affairs, the second-most important position in the Council of Ministers, while Jagjivan Ram took charge of the Ministry of Defence. BJS leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani were respectively given charge of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Raj Narain was appointed Minister of Health, Madhu Dandavate was to head the Ministry of Railways and trade unionist George Fernandes was made the Minister of Communications. Jurist Shanti Bhushan was appointed Minister of Law and Justice. Congress (O) veteran and Janata candidate Neelam Sanjiva Reddy won the presidential election to become the 6th President of India on July 25, 1977.

The results of its election defeat considerably weakened and diminished the Congress (R). Significant numbers of Congress (R) MPs and activists condemned Indira's leadership and left the party. As a result, MPs still loyal to Indira Gandhi renamed their party to Congress (I) – "I" standing for Indira. Although no longer an MP, Indira Gandhi continued as the president of Congress (I), which remained the largest opposition party.