(i) The fifth general elections to Lok Sabha were held in February 1971. The electoral contest appeared to be loaded against Congress (R). After all, the new Congress was just one faction of an already weak party. Everyone believed that the real organizational strength of the Congress Party was under the command of Congress (O). To make I matter worse for Indira Gandhi, all the major non-Communist, non-Congress opposition parties formed an electoral alliance known as the Grand Alliance. Yet the new Congress had something that its big opponents lacked. it had an issue, an agenda, and a positive slogan. The Grand Alliance did not have a coherent political programme. Indira Gandhi said that the opposition alliance had only one common programme Indira Hatao (Remove Indira). In contrast to this, she put forward a positive programme captured in the famous slogan: Garibi Hatao (Remove poverty).
(ii) Indira Gandhi focussed on the growth of the public sector, the imposition of ceiling on rural land holdings and urban poverty, removal of disparities in income and opportunity, and the abolition of princely privileges. Thus, the slogan Garibi Hatao and the programmes that followed it were part of Indira Gandhi’s political strategy of building an Independent nationwide political support base. As a result, she won 352 seats with about 44 percent of the popular votes on its own in the Lok Sabha elections of 1971.
(iii) Soon after the 1971 Lok Sabha election, a major political and military crisis broke out in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The 1971 elections were followed by the crisis in East Pakistan and the Indo- Pak war leading to the establishment of Bangladesh. These events added to the popularity of Indira Gandhi. Even the opposition leaders admired her statesmanship.
