He won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which led to her disqualification and imposition of the Emergency in 1975.

Raj Narain was the son of Anant Prasad Singh and was born on 23 November 1917 in an affluent Bhumihar[4] family in the village Motikoat in Varanasi.

Raj Narain opposed policies and practices of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and stood (against her) in 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareli as an Samyukta Socialist Party Candidate.

[5] Nationwide protest started and the streets were flooded with people under the leadership of Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan and Raj Narain.

Known as biggest critique and adversary of Indira Gandhi, upon imposition of Emergency, Raj Narain was immediately arrested and imprisoned on the same day, along with several leading opposition leaders including Jai Prakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Charan Singh, L. K. Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee without any advance notice and confined mostly in undisclosed locations.

Mrs. Gandhi lifted the state of emergency in January 1977, dissolved Lok Sabha and arranged fresh elections to the body.

Narain's stint as minister lasted just over a year when he and Charan Singh were asked to resign for criticising the Janata government.

[6] Raj Narain's performance in the 1977–1979 Janata period has been described as that of Buffoon, practitioner of Guerilla theatre, and as a stalking horse for Charan Singh.

Merged SSP (Lohia) into BKD in 1974 and formed Bhartiya Lok Dal Formed Janata Party in 1977 after the merger of BLD, Bhartiya Jana sangh, Congress (O), Socialist Party and Congress for Democracy (CFD) Contested against former Prime Minister Charan Singh, in 1984 Lok Sabha elections from Baghpat (U.P.)

Raj Narain published ‘Janmukh’-a weekly from Varanasi and has been on the editorial board of ‘Jan’ a monthly established by Dr Rammanohar Lohia.