It was a historic election for the Indian democracy. The Congress party was defeated at the national level for the first time and the Janata Party came to power Mr. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was unanimously elected as speaker of the 6th Lok Sabha on 26th March, 1977. Later, he was elected unopposed, the only President of India to be elected being unanimously supported by all political parties including the opposition Congress party and sworn as the 6th President of India on 25th July, 1977. This ushered in the practice of accepting personalities of great statesmanship with high standards in public life, being preferred for public offices and certainly a move away from the traditional party based politics. During his term of office, Sanjeeva Reddy had to work with three governments under Prime Ministers Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi.

The victorious Janata Party attempted to consolidate itself by dismissing nine Congress governments in the states. Was the central government justified in dismissing state governments even if they enjoyed majority in their assemblies just because the party ruling in those states had been defeated in the parliamentary elections? The Janata Party argued that the Congress party had lost its mandate to rule in the States as it had been defeated. Its stand was somewhat vindicated by its victory in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar and the victory of CPI (M) in West Bengal and DMK in Tamil Nadu.