Bharatiya Jana Sangh

The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbreviated as BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh^[9]; lit. 'All-India People's Union') was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal Upadhyaya. Jan Sangh was the political arm of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right Hindutva volunteer paramilitary group.^[10] In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party.^[11] In 1980, the members of erstwhile Jan Sangh quit the Janata party after the defeat in the 1980 general elections and formed the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the direct political successor to the Jan Sangh.

Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh
Founder	Syama Prasad Mookerjee
Founded	21 October 1951; 73 years ago (21 October 1951)[1]
Dissolved	23 January 1977; 48 years ago (23 January 1977)
Split from	Hindu Mahasabha
Merged into	Janata Party (1977–1980)
Succeeded by	Bharatiya Janata Party (1980–present)
Ideology	Hindu nationalism[2] Hindutva[3] Integral humanism[4] National conservatism[5] Economic nationalism[6]
Political position	Right-wing[7] to far-right[8]
Colours	Saffron
Election symbol
Politics of India Political parties Elections

Origins

Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh

Many members of the far-right Hindutva paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) contemplated the formation of a political party to during the days of the British Raj, in an attempt to take their ideology further. Around the same time, Syama Prasad Mookerjee left the Hindu Mahasabha political party that he had once led because of a disagreement with that party over permitting non-Hindu membership.^[12][13][14]

There were two main reasons for the formation of Jan Sangh, those being the Liaquat–Nehru Pact and the ban on the RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.^[15]

The state level units of the party were already established in Punjab, P.E.P.S.U. (Patiala and East Punjab States Union), Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Bharat before the party was formally founded at national level.^[16] The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was subsequently founded by Mookerjee on 21 October 1951^[1] in Delhi under the RSS, as a "nationalistic alternative" to the Indian National Congress.^[17]

History

The first plenary session of Jan Sangh was held at Kanpur in December 1952.^[18]

After the death of Mookerjee in 1953, RSS activists in the BJS edged out the career politicians and made it a political arm of the RSS and an integral part of the RSS family of organisations (Sangh Parivar).^[19]

The strongest election performance of the BJS came in the 1967 Lok Sabha election in which it won 35 seats,^[20][21] when the Congress majority was its thinnest ever.^[22]
The party secured six out of seven parliamentary seats in Delhi and went on to wrest control of the Metropolitan Council and Municipal corporation.^[23]

Ideology

Main article: Hindutva

When BJS was formed, an 8-point programme was adopted.This formed the core of its ideology over the next years.^[24]

The BJS leadership fervently supported a strong policy against Pakistan and China, and were averse to communism and the Soviet Union. Many BJS leaders also initiated the drive to ban cow slaughter nationwide in the early 1960s.^[25] Establishment of full relations with Israel was also a demand in the party manifesto.^[8] Uniform Civil Code was mentioned in the 1967 manifesto which said that the party would enact UCC if it came to power.^[26]

Chronological list of presidents

#	Portrait	Name	Term
1		Syama Prasad Mookerjee	1951–52
2		Mauli Chandra Sharma	1954
3		Prem Nath Dogra	1955
4		Debaprasad Ghosh	1956–59
5		Pitamber Das	1960
6		Avasarala Rama Rao	1961
(4)		Debaprasad Ghosh	1962
7		Raghu Vira	1963
(4)		Debaprasad Ghosh	1964
8		Bachhraj Vyas	1965
9		Balraj Madhok	1966
10		Deendayal Upadhyaya	1967–68
11		Atal Bihari Vajpayee	1968–72
12		L. K. Advani	1973–77
See List of national presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party

In general elections

The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was created in 1951, and the first general election it contested was in 1951–52, in which it won only three Lok Sabha seats, in line with the four seats won by Hindu Mahasabha and three seats won by Ram Rajya Parishad. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Durga Charan Banerjee were elected from Calcutta South East constituency and Midnapore Jhargram constituency in West Bengal and Uma Shankar Trivedi from Chittor constituency in Rajasthan. All the like-minded parties formed a block in the Parliament, led by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.^[27][20]

Year	General Election	Seats Won	Change in Seat	% of votes	Ref.
1951	1st Lok Sabha	3	–	3.06	[27][21]
1957	2nd Lok Sabha	4	1	5.93	[20][21]
1962	3rd Lok Sabha	14	10	6.44	[20][21]
1967	4th Lok Sabha	35	21	9.31	[20][21]
1971	5th Lok Sabha	22	13	7.35	[28][21][29]