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From the Archives: The new power game

The Janata Party's main political rival-the Congress (I)-staged its own political drama. Karnataka Chief Minister Devraj Urs, originally picked by Mrs Gandhi as her political hand-maiden in Karnataka, and the man who recently orchestrated her short-lived election to the Lok Sabha, dumped her unceremoniously to launch his own party.

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From the Archives: The new power game
The new power game
The new power game
The new power game

Deliberate or not, the month of June certainly signified the darkest chapter in the brief but tortuous history of the Janata Party. It was a month when political tempers soared along with the mercury, ushering in dangerous portents. A month, in which the protracted power game took a malevolent turn. It was also a month plagued with ironies. Raj Narain, the irascible political gadfly who acquired the status of a national leader by trouncing Indira Gandhi first in the courts and then at the hustings in March 1977, and one of the founders of the Janata Party, has quit the party. Thus, unwittingly placing his political mentor, Deputy Prime Minister Charan Singh, in the predicament of whether to follow suit or hold fire.

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Meanwhile, the Janata Party's main political rival-the Congress (I)-staged its own political drama. Karnataka Chief Minister Devraj Urs, originally picked by Mrs Gandhi as her political hand-maiden in Karnataka, and the man who recently orchestrated her short-lived election to the Lok Sabha, dumped her unceremoniously to launch his own party.

And, as if that was not enough midsummer madness for a month, the ruling party dug its political grave even deeper, by fiddling while the country burnt.