Read the passage and answer the question:

In January 1977, after eighteen months of Emergency, the government decided to hold elections. Accordingly, all the leaders and activists were released from jail. Elections were held in March 1977. This left the opposition with very little time, but political developments took place very rapidly. The major opposition parties had already been coming closer in the pre-Emergency period. Now they came together on the eve of the elections and formed a new party.

Which of the following statements are correct about Lok Sabha Elections, 1977?

a) The Elections were held in March 1977.
b) The opposition parties came together and formed a new party called Janata Party.
c) Janata Party won the elections & Jayaprakash Narayan became the Prime Minister.
d) Indira Gandhi herself was defeated in Rae Bareli.

Choose the correct answer from the given options:

a, b and d

The correct answer is Option 3 - a, b and d

a) The Elections were held in March 1977. (CORRECT)
b) The opposition parties came together and formed a new party called Janata Party. (CORRECT)
c) Janata Party won the elections & Jayaprakash Narayan became the Prime Minister.
d) Indira Gandhi herself was defeated in Rae Bareli. (CORRECT)

CORRECTION in option C: Janata Party won the elections & Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister not Jayaprakash Narayan.

In January 1977, after eighteen months of Emergency, the government decided to hold elections. Accordingly, all the leaders and activists were released from jails. Elections were held in March 1977. This left the opposition with very little time, but political developments took place very rapidly. The major opposition parties had already been coming closer in the pre-Emergency period. Now they came together on the eve of the elections and formed a new party, known as the Janata Party. The new party accepted the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan. Some leaders of the Congress who were opposed to the Emergency also joined this new party The Janata Party made this election into a referendum on the Emergency. Yet the final results took everyone by surprise. For the first time since Independence, the Congress party was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections. Indira Gandhi was defeated from Rae Bareli, as was her son Sanjay Gandhi from Amethi. The Janata Party government that came to power after the 1977 elections was far from cohesive. After the election, there was stiff competition among three leaders for the post of Prime Minister – Morarji Desai, who was the rival to Indira Gandhi ever since 1966-67; Charan Singh, leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal and a farmers’ leader from UP; and Jagjivan Ram, who had vast experience as a senior minister in the Congress governments. Eventually Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister but that did not bring the power struggle within the party to an end.