Prime Minister Gandhi

By 1966, the Congress Party was in trouble. It was dividing into two separate factions, Indira Gandhi led the left wing socialist faction. The 1967 election cycle was grim for the party it lost almost 60 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Indira was able to keep the Prime Minister seat through a coalition with the Indian Communist and Socialist parties. In 1969, the Indian National Congress Party split in half for good.As prime minister, Indira made some popular moves. She authorized the development of a nuclear weapons program in response to Chinas successful test at Lop Nur in 1967. (India would test its own bomb in 1974.) In order to counterbalance Pakistans friendship with the United States, and also perhaps due to mutual personal antipathy with US President Richard Nixon, she forged a closer relationship with the Soviet Union.In keeping with her socialist principles, Indira abolished the maharajas of Indias various states, doing away with their privileges as well as their titles. She also nationalized the banks in July of 1969, as well as mines and oil companies. Under her stewardship, traditionally famine prone India became a Green Revolution success story, actually exporting a surplus of wheat, rice and other crops by the early 1970s.In 1971, in response to a flood of refugees from East Pakistan, Indira began a war against Pakistan. The East Pakistani Indian forces won the war, resulting in the formation of the nation of Bangladesh from what had been East Pakistan.