 She was considered close to Morarji Desai and was on his side in the battle of succession between Desai and Indira Gandhi to replace Lal Bahadur Shastri as Prime Minister.When Desai and other leaders resigned from Congress to form a splinter group, she too joined it.In the Indira wave during 1971 Lok Sabha elections, she lost from Barh as Congress(O) candidate to the Congress nominee Dharamvir Sinha, her first taste of electoral defeat.