Congress for Democracy

Congress for Democracy
President	Jagjivan Ram
Secretary-General	Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna
Founder	Jagjivan Ram
Founded	1977
Dissolved	1977
Merged into	Janata Party
Politics of India Political parties Elections

The Congress for Democracy (CFD) was an Indian political party founded in 1977 by Jagjivan Ram. It was formed after Jagjivan Ram left the Indian National Congress of Indira Gandhi and denounced her rule during the Indian Emergency. The party contested the Indian general election, 1977 with the Janata alliance and later merged with it.

Jagjivan Ram was a senior politician within the Indian National Congress and had been a loyalist of Indira Gandhi. He had held various cabinet posts, and had served India's defence minister during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He was also the most prominent Scheduled Caste or Dalit politician in the nation.

Ram had stayed loyal to Indira after she imposed a state of emergency in 1975. However, the state of emergency had proven widely unpopular and upon calling elections in 1977, it became apparent that Indira's Indian National Congress could suffer defeat. Consequently, Ram and his supporters resigned from the government and the Indian National Congress in January 1977, denouncing Indira Gandhi and her Emergency rule.

The Congress for Democracy was launched on February 2, 1977.Jagjivan Ram became the president of the party and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna became the party general secretary. Other co-founders included the former Chief Minister of Orissa Nandini Satpathy, former Union Minister of State for Finance K. R. Ganesh, former M.P. Dwarka Nath Tiwary and Bihari politician Raj Mangal Pandey.

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