Fired from the Union Cabinet of Morarji Desai in July due to differences that came to a head on account of the handling of the prosecution of Indira Gandhi. The real reason was power: the Congress (O) and Jana Sangh continued to scheme and neutralized Charan Singh’s key political lieutenants in Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana and in the Janata’s central political bodies. He had no choice other than to fight back or be decimated in the winner-take-all world of politics.

Presides over the historic Kisan Rally on 23 December 1978 at Boat Club in Delhi on his 76th birthday, said to be the largest ever rally of peasants and villagers in the history of independent India. Convinces the warring leaders of the Janata Party that he was the only one with a political base and needed to be brought back in.