She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that had been begun by her father.

Gandhi established closer relations with the Soviet Union. She was also the only Indian Prime Minister to have declared state of emergency in order to 'rule by decree' and the only Indian Prime Minister to have been imprisoned after holding that office. guilty of dishonest election practices, excessive election expenditure, and of using government machinery and officials for party purposes. And she dismissed criticism of the way her Congress Party raised election campaign money, saying all parties used the same methods. "Unlike her father Jawaharlal Nehru, who preferred to deal with strong chief ministers in control of their legislative parties and state party organizations, Mrs. Gandhi set out to remove every Congress chief minister who had an independent base and to replace each of them with ministers personally loyal to her...Even so, stability could not be maintained in the states.. this strategy backfired disastrously. Her arrest and long-running trial, however, gained her great sympathy from many people The first serious challenge to Congress hegemony came in 1967 when a united opposition, under the banner of Samyukt Vidhayak Dal Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Nehru, and Congress president, was then challenged by the majority of the party leadership. The conflict led to a split, and Indira launched a separate INC. Initially this party was known as Congress (R), but it soon came to be generally known as the "New Congress". After she lifted the emergency in 1977, more Congress factions were formed, the oneremaining loyal to Indira Gandhi being popularly known as Congress(I) with an 'I' for Indira. Congress(I) was routed in the general elections by the Janata Party, but the resulting coalition government fell apart in two years

The phase of INC from 1967 to 1984 could be called the Indira Gandhi phase due to her dominant presence in the organisation as President of the INC and the Prime Minister of India. Although there were several prominent leaders like Moraji Desai and Kamaraj in INC at that time, Indira became popular due to her charisma and the support from several leaders. Her actions as a representative of INC mostly depicted her self-nature. The era of Indira Gandhi was marked by several bold decisions in the helm of severe criticisms. She followed the quasi-socialist policies laid down by her father, Nehru. She is still remembered for the controversies during her reign including declaration of emergency, war with Pakistan and Operation Bluestar. She was so dominant that even people within INC opposed her and left the organisation to start a new political organisation. Immoral practices including electoral malpractices were prevalent during her reign. The history of INC during the 1967-1984 phase was aligned with the timeline of Indira. Indiras governance abilities were astounding. INC was expected to shift from an entrepreneurial stage to the collectivity stage in their life cycle. But on the contrary, during this phase, INC continued to be in the entrepreneurial stage due to the impact of Indira in national politics. There was only one house of power and that was Indira. The decisions were taken solely at her discretion and she tended to dominate in each and every decision taken by the party. Unlike the Jawaharlal Nehru era, when preference was given to eminent and efficient chief ministers to control their legislative and state party organizations, Indira concentrated on removing the Congress chief minister who had an independent following and to replace each of them with ministers loyal to her. This disrupted the bonding inside INC and invited the dislike of many leaders towards Indira. This was followed by many leaders leaving Congress to join other parties or start parties of their own. As the power was vested in a single person, the structure of the organisation was entrepreneurial, informal and a one-man show. The control lay in the hands of Indira and she was at discretion to exercise her power. The organisation as a whole misused its power to declare emergency to restrict the opponent parties. The top management comprised Indira, the President of the party and her autocratic behaviour was more towards individualism than collective responsibility. Indira was a true leader who made INC an action-packed organisation with unexpected twists and turns and controversies. INC lost its values and essence which previously formed its bottomline. Congress tended to move away from the social setup created by the Nehru reign. Thus the phase 1967-1984 could undoubtedly called Era of Indira Gandhi.