Political succession after Nehru
Topic: Challenges to and Restoration of the Congress System · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 5 "Challenges to and Restoration of the Congress System"
Meaning
Political succession means handing power from one leader to the next. When Nehru was alive, people asked "after Nehru, who?" and the harder question "after Nehru, what?". Many observers feared that India would fail at this and that the army might take over. They called the 1960s the "dangerous decade". Instead, power changed hands peacefully twice, and that showed Indian democracy was strong.
Example
Nehru died on 27 May 1964 and Gulzarilal Nanda became acting PM. Congress president Kamaraj then built a consensus (general agreement), and Lal Bahadur Shastri was elected leader unanimously. After Shastri died at Tashkent in January 1966, Congress MPs chose between Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai by secret ballot. She won 355-169 and took office on 24 January 1966.