The outcome and after

The 1971 Lok Sabha election was not just a victory — it was a political earthquake. The results were as dramatic as the decision to hold the election a year early. Indira Gandhi had staked everything on a direct appeal to the voters, and the voters responded overwhelmingly.

The Congress(R)-CPI alliance won more seats and votes than the Congress had ever won in any of the first four general elections. The combine secured 375 seats in the Lok Sabha and 48.4 per cent of the vote. On its own, Indira Gandhi’s Congress(R) won 352 seats with about 44 per cent of the popular vote.

Now contrast this with the Congress(O). Despite having so many veteran leaders — stalwarts of the freedom movement — the party could get less than one-fourth of the votes that Indira Gandhi’s party received. It won a mere 16 seats. The message was unmistakable: the voters had decisively chosen Indira Gandhi’s faction as the ‘real’ Congress.

The Grand Alliance of opposition parties — which had seemed so formidable on paper — proved to be a grand failure. Their combined tally of seats was less than 60. A cartoonist at the time summed it up perfectly: “The Grand Finish.” The opposition players were left scattered on the ground.

Soon after the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, a major political and military crisis broke out in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). As you have read in Chapter Four, this led to the Indo-Pak war and the establishment of Bangladesh. These events added enormously to the popularity of Indira Gandhi. Even opposition leaders admired her statesmanship.

Her party swept through all the State Assembly elections held in 1972. She was now seen not only as the protector of the poor and the underprivileged, but also as a strong nationalist leader. The opposition to her — whether from within the party or outside — simply did not matter. …