 Patel first contested the election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, in 1967.Contesting from the Swatantra Party, Patel lost due be being largely unknown to the electorate.Following the defeat of Indira Gandhi's Congress Party in the 1977 elections that ended the Indian Emergency, Patel was appointed the Finance Minister by the new Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who was leading India's first non-Congress administration.