Although committing to contest the election with the Janata party, Ram resisted merging his party organisation with Janata. It was ultimately decided that the Congress for Democracy would contest the election with the same manifesto as the Janata party and would join the Janata party in Parliament, but would otherwise retain a separate identity (the CFD would merge with the Janata party after the elections on 5 May). On 30 January 1977 the Communist Party of India (Marxist) announced that it would seek to avoid a splintering in the opposition vote by not running candidates against the Janata party.