Politics after Emergency The most valuable and lasting lesson of the Emergency was learnt as soon as the Emergency was over and the Lok Sabha elections were announced. The elections turned into a referendum on the experience of the Emergency, at least in north India where the impact of the Emergency was felt most strongly. The opposition fought the election on the slogan of ‘save democracy’. The people’s verdict was decisively against the Emergency.
The lesson was clear and has been reiterated in many state level elections thereafter– governments that are perceived to be anti-democratic are severely punished by the voters. In this sense the experience of – ended up strengthening the foundations of democracy in India. Lok Sabha Elections, In January , after eighteen months of Emergency, the government decided to hold elections. Accordingly, all the leaders and activists were released from jails.
Elections were held in March . This left the opposition with very little time, but political developments took place very rapidly. The major opposition parties had already been coming closer in the pre-Emergency period. Now they came together on the eve of the elections and formed a new party, known as the Janata Party.
The new party accepted the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan. Some leaders of the Congress who were opposed to the Emergency also joined this new party. Morarji Desai ( - ): Freedom fighter; a Gandhian leader; Proponenet of Khadi, naturopathy and prohibition; Chief Minister of Bombay State; Deputy Prime Minister ( - ); joined Congress (O) after the split in the party; Prime Minister from to —first Prime Minister belonging to a non-Congress party.