Bharatiya Janata Party << `BAHR` uh TEE yuh juh nuh TAH PAHR tee >> is India’s main conservative political party. It is often called the BJP. It was founded on an ideology (set of beliefs) called Hindutva, which encourages India’s Hindu majority to embrace a strong Hindu identity and way of life. Hindutva developed from the view that India is a Hindu nation. The BJP was the main party in India’s ruling coalitions from 1998 to 2004. It became the ruling party again in 2014. Most of the party’s leaders belong to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization, or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a religious and political organization. Both groups support recognizing India as a Hindu nation. Most of the BJP’s electoral support has come from India’s northern and western states. The BJP’s main opposition is the Indian National Congress, a secular (nonreligious) political party.
Policies.
Historically, the BJP has supported a single civil code for India, rather than the separate Hindu and Muslim family laws now in effect. It favored eliminating the provisions of the Indian Constitution that, until 2019, had granted special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority. For example, Indian citizens from other states had not been allowed to buy real estate in Jammu and Kashmir, even though Kashmiris were permitted to do so in the rest of India. The BJP also supported the building of a Hindu temple on the site of the former Babri Masjid Islamic mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu extremists demolished the mosque in 1992. This act led to violence and political division along religious lines in India. A 2019 decision by India’s Supreme Court eventually permitted the building of a Hindu temple at the site, but also condemned the destruction of the mosque and ordered land to be provided for a new mosque. The new Hindu temple opened in 2024.
The BJP favors a strong national defense, including the development of nuclear weapons. In May 1998, India’s BJP government conducted underground nuclear weapons tests. In March 2000, the government approved a large budget increase for India’s defense.
On economic matters, the BJP had historically supported a policy of swadeshi, which calls for giving preference to Indian businesses and products over foreign ones. However, when the party led India’s government in the late 1990’s, it changed its stance and took steps to open up India’s economy to international competition and trade. It encouraged foreign investment in such industries as insurance, pharmaceuticals, mining, and filmmaking.
History.
The BJP was founded in 1980. It was the successor of the Jana Sangh, an earlier Hindu nationalist party that merged with the Janata Party in 1977. The BJP had little parliamentary strength until 1989. In elections that year, it increased its representation to 88 of the 524 elected seats in the Lok Sabha, the more powerful of the two houses of India’s Parliament. After that, it won control of the governments of four Indian states—Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. In 1992, the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya led to a crisis in Hindu-Muslim relations, and the Indian government dismissed all four BJP-led state governments. In 1993, the BJP returned to power in Rajasthan and also won in the newly formed National Capital Territory of Delhi.
In elections of August 1996, the BJP won 161 of the 543 elected seats in the Lok Sabha, more than any other party. Atal Bihari Vajpayee then became India’s first BJP prime minister. However, Vajpayee was forced to resign after only 13 days, because he was unable to get enough support from other parties to form a governing majority. Many Indian leaders were unwilling to support a BJP-led government, because they regarded Hindutva as a threat to India’s tradition of religious and cultural tolerance. A coalition called the United Front took power after Vajpayee resigned.
In elections in 1998, the BJP won 182 Lok Sabha seats, which was again more than any other party. This time, the BJP set aside much of its commitment to Hindutva goals to form a governing coalition, and Vajpayee became prime minister. However, his government was weakened by disputes between the BJP and its coalition partners. In April 1999, Vajpayee was defeated in a parliamentary vote of confidence, and his government collapsed.
Because the opposition Indian National Congress failed to establish an alternative coalition, Vajpayee remained acting prime minister. In May and June 1999, India responded with military force when Pakistani troops occupied the Kargil area in Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed region controlled partly by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China, and Kargil lies in Indian-held territory. India’s military action raised Vajpayee’s popularity. This popularity helped a BJP-led coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) win a majority of Lok Sabha seats in the elections of August and September 1999. The BJP itself won 182 seats, and its NDA allies won more than 100 additional seats. Vajpayee retained his post as prime minister. In November 2000, he declared a cease-fire in Jammu and Kashmir and began working for peace with Pakistan. In 2002, violence between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.
The NDA lost control of the government in the elections of April and May 2004. An alliance led by the Indian National Congress defeated the NDA. The BJP’s number of seats in the Lok Sabha dropped to 138. After parliamentary elections in April and May 2009, the alliance led by the Indian National Congress retained control of the government. The BJP’s number of seats in the Lok Sabha dropped to 116.
In elections held in April and May 2014, the BJP won 282 seats, a majority, in the Lok Sabha. BJP leader Narendra Modi became prime minister. The party again won a majority of seats in the 2019 elections, and Modi remained as prime minister. A few months later, the BJP-dominated government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. It also passed a law to break up the state into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east. The federal government has more control over union territories than it does over states, so the change represented a further reduction in local control.
In 2024 parliamentary elections, the BJP won 240 seats in the Lok Sabha, less than the 272 needed for a majority. However, an additional 52 seats were won by other parties in the National Democratic Alliance, the coalition led by the BJP. As a result, the BJP was able to form a coalition government. Modi began a third term as prime minister.
