Read the following sentences carefully:
I. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India in 1966.
II. Before this she held the post of Congress President in 1959.
The correct statement is/are:

Question

Read the following sentences carefully: 
I. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India in 1966. 
II. Before this she held the post of Congress President in 1959. 
The correct statement is/are:

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 3:

The correct option is Both I and II are correct. This question tests your knowledge of the political trajectory of Indira Gandhi, one of India’s most influential Prime Ministers. Statement I is factually correct: Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India in January 1966 following the sudden death of her predecessor, Lal Bahadur Shastri. She defeated Morarji Desai in the Congress Parliamentary Party leadership contest, marking her entry as the third, and first female, Prime Minister of India. Statement II is also correct: she held the position of President of the Indian National Congress in 1959. Her term as Congress President (1959-1960) was a significant, early milestone in her political career, demonstrating her growing prominence within the party apparatus well before she became a Central Minister (Minister for Information and Broadcasting, 1964-1966) and subsequently the Prime Minister. Both of these events—her short tenure as Congress President in 1959 and her ascent to the Prime Ministership in 1966—are historically documented and sequential, meaning Statement II precedes Statement I. Since both statements are verified historical facts, Option 3 is the correct choice.

The incorrect option is 1: I is correct and II is incorrect.
This option is incorrect because it falsely claims that Statement II (Indira Gandhi holding the post of Congress President in 1959) is incorrect. In reality, her tenure as Congress President in 1959, immediately before her rise to national prominence, is a well-established fact of Indian political history. By asserting the falsehood of Statement II, this option provides an incomplete and inaccurate representation of her early political career. Since both statements I and II are correct, this option cannot be the right answer.

The incorrect option is 2: I is incorrect and II is correct.
This option is incorrect because it falsely claims that Statement I (Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966) is incorrect. Following the sudden passing of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent in January 1966, Indira Gandhi was chosen by the Congress party to succeed him. The year 1966 marks the widely recognized beginning of her first term as the head of the Indian government. While Statement II is correct, the incorrect assessment of Statement I makes the overall option false.

The incorrect option is 4: Both I and II are incorrect.
This option is incorrect because, as explained, both statements are historically accurate and verifiable. Indira Gandhi did become the Prime Minister in 1966, and she did serve as the Congress President prior to this in 1959. This option completely negates two major political facts about Indira Gandhi's early career, thereby making it factually unsound.