(March 1977 – January 1980)

The Janata Party contesting under the symbol of ‘chakra- haldhar’ and its allies won a massive majority in the 1977 elections.

Morarji Desai the First Non-Congress Prime Minister

There were three contenders for the post of prime minister, namely, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram. It was left to Acharya Kripalani and Jayaprakash Narayan to decide who would become prime minister. Their choice was Morarji Desai who duly took the oath as prime minister on March 23, 1977. Charan Singh (minister of home, and later of finance) and Jagjivan Ram (defence minister) were deputy prime ministers.