in 1920, it won the first direct elections in the presidency and formed the government. for the next seventeen years, it formed four out of the five ministries and was in power for thirteen years. it was the main political alternative to the nationalist indian national congress in madras. after it lost to the congress in the 1937 election, it never recovered. it came under the leadership of periyar e. v. ramaswamy and his self-respect movement. in 1944, periyar transformed the justice party into the social organisation dravidar kazhagam and withdrew it from electoral politics. a rebel faction that called itself the original justice party, survived to contest one final election, in 1952.