Bharatiya Janata Party: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 16:28, 15 April 2021


Bharatiya Janata Party
AbbreviationBJP
PresidentJagat Prakash Nadda
Parliamentary ChairpersonNarendra Modi
Lok Sabha leaderNarendra Modi
(Prime Minister)
Rajya Sabha leaderThawar Chand Gehlot
(Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment)
Founder
Founded6 April 1980 (45 years ago) (1980-04-06)
Preceded by
  • RSS (1923-present)
Headquarters6-A, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg,
New Delhi-110002
NewspaperKamal Sandesh
Youth wingBharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha
Women's wingBJP Mahila Morcha
Labour wingBharatiya Mazdoor Sangh
Peasant's wingBJP Kisan Morcha
MembershipIncrease180 million (2019)[1][2]
Ideology
Political positionFar Right-wing[11][12][13]
International affiliation
Colours  Saffron
ECI StatusNational Party[16]
Alliance
Seats in Lok Sabha
303 / 545
(currently 543 members + 2 nominated)
Seats in Rajya Sabha
78 / 245
(currently 233 members + 12 nominated)[17]
Seats in Vidhan Sabha(s)
1,331 / 4,071
Seats in Vidhan Parishad(s)
91 / 426
Number of states and union territories in government
20 / 31
Website
www.bjp.org

The Bharatiya Janata Party (abbreviated BJP) is one of the two major political parties in India. (The second being the Indian National Congress). Since the Indian elections in 2014, the BJP has 303 of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India and 78 of the 238 seats in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. Amit Shah is the national president of BJP since 2014.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani founded the party in April 1980.

"Bharatiya" means "Indian" and "Janata" means "People". The BJP's political beliefs are similar to the beliefs of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is a controversial organization in India that is Hindu nationalist and hostile to minorities, particularly towards Muslims.

History

Bharatiya Jana Sangh

The history of the Bharatiya Janata Party starts with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbreviated BJS). The BJS was a political party created by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. At that time, the Indian National Congress was the political party that ruled India. The BJS's goal was to stop the Indian National Congress's policies.

Many people thought the BJS was part of the RSS because they had the same ideologies on leading the Government of India.

Campaign for Kashmir

The party's first election campaign was about Kashmir. Kashmir was an area divided between India and Pakistan(2393squareKm). The BJS wanted to make Kashmir a part of India. The party's founder, Mookerjee, was arrested for protesting in Kashmir, when he was ordered not to do so. He died in prison, so Deendayal Upadhyay became the party's leader.

Even though there was slight public support for the party because of the campaign about Kashmir, the BJS only managed to win three seats in the Lok Sabha in the 1952 elections.

Later elections

In the 1967 Indian elections, many political parties, including the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, joined up together to win a majority of the seats of many Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. This was the first time the BJS had held any political office. In 1977, after the end of a State of Emergency declared by the Congress Government, BJS joined with several other parties to form BJP.

In 1996 BJP became the largest party in Parliament. It did poorly in the 2004 elections and became the major opposition party. The 2014 elections gave BJP enough seats to form a government.

Formation and early days

Although the newly formed BJP was technically distinct from the Jana Sangh, the bulk of its rank and file were identical to its predecessor, with Vajpayee being its first president. Historian Ramchandra Guha writes that the early 1980s were marked by a wave of violence between Hindus and Muslims. The BJP initially moderated the Hindu Nationalist stance of its predecessor the Jana Sangh to gain a wider appeal, emphasising its links to the Janata Party and the ideology of Gandhian Socialism. This was unsuccessful, as it won only two Lok Sabha seats in the Elections of 1984.[18] The assassination of Indira Gandhi a few months earlier resulted in a wave of support for the congress which won a record tally of 403 seats, contributing to the low number for the BJP.[19]

Janata Party (1977–80)

In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency. The Jana Sangh took part in the widespread protests, with thousands of its members being imprisoned along with other agitators across the country. In 1977, the emergency was withdrawn and general elections were held. The Jana Sangh merged with parties from across the political spectrum, including the Socialist Party, the Congress (O) and the Bharatiya Lok Dal to form the Janata Party, with its main agenda being defeating Indira Gandhi.

General election results

The Bharatiya Janata Party was officially founded in 1980, and the first general election it contested was in 1984, in which it won only two Lok Sabha seats. Following the election in 1996, the BJP became the largest party in the Lok Sabha for the first time, but the government it formed was short-lived. In the elections of 1998 and 1999, it remained the largest party, and headed the ruling coalition on both occasions. In the 2014 general election, it won an outright majority in parliament. From 1991 onwards, a BJP member has led the Opposition whenever the party was not in power.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "BJP inducts 7 crore new members, creates membership drive record". India Today. 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  2. ↑ "BJP to add 7 crore new members: J P Nadda". Times of India. 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  3. ↑ "BJP stands by Hindutva ideals: Venkaiah Naidu". The Hindu. 23 March 2012. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "Is Modi's India Safe for Muslims?". Foreign Policy. 26 June 2015. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017.
  5. ↑ Bonikowska, Monika (2014). "India After The Elections". Centre for International Relations (6): 2. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  6. ↑ Taylor, McComas (2016). Seven Days of Nectar: Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhagavatapurana. Oxford University Press. p. 197.
  7. ↑ Kale, Sunila (2014). Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development. Stanford University Press. p. 94.
  8. ↑ "Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)". Elections.in. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  9. ↑ Rao Jr., Parsa Venkateshwar (18 January 2016). "Modi's right-wing populism". Daily News and Analysis. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  10. ↑ Wodak, Ruth (2013). Right-Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse. A&C Black. p. 23.
  11. ↑ Malik & Singh 1992, pp. 318–336.
  12. ↑ BBC 2012.
  13. ↑ Banerjee 2005, p. 3118.
  14. ↑ Pillalamarri, Akhilesh. "India's Bharatiya Janata Party Joins Union of International Conservative Parties — The Diplomat". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016.
  15. ↑ "International Democrat Union » Asia Pacific Democrat Union (APDU)". International Democrat Union. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  16. ↑ Election Commission 2013.
  17. ↑ "STRENGTHWISE PARTY POSITION IN THE RAJYA SABHA". Rajya Sabha. Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  18. ↑ https://online.ucpress.edu/as/article-abstract/32/4/318/22948/Bharatiya-Janata-Party-An-Alternative-to-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext
  19. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_After_Gandhi
  20. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140521205101/http://legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in/LS/ataglace.htm

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