Indira Gandhi announces elections on 28 March in a month and lifts the iron veil of the Emergency, hoping the opposition will continue to squabble and not be ready for the snap elections. She miscalculates - the opposition parties surprise her, and themselves, and form the Janata Party.

Charan Singh provides the principal electoral base for the defeat of the Congress in the 1977 General Elections, the BLD faction within the Janata Party is estimated to be 100 Members of Parliament. (The other factions were the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Congress (O) and the CFD). Elected to the Indian Parliament for the first time at 75 years, and becomes Union Home Minister from 24 March 1977 to 1 July 1978. He often said he was 10 years too late to Parliament to bring any significant change.