Bharatiya Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party (abbreviated BJP) is one of the two major political parties in India, alongside the Indian National Congress. The party is ideologically and organisationally linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindutva paramilitary group. In the 2024 Indian general election, the BJP won 240 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. Jayprakash Nadda is the national president of the party. It is the leading party of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Bharatiya Janata Party भारतीय जन्ता पार्ती  (Hindi) Bhāratiyā Jantā Pārtī
Abbreviation	BJP
President	Jagat Prakash Nadda
Parliamentary Chairperson	Narendra Modi
Lok Sabha Leader	Narendra Modi (Prime Minister)
Rajya Sabha Leader	Piyush Goyal (Minister of Textiles)
Founder	Atal Bihari Vajpayee L. K. Advani
Founded	6 April 1980 (45 years ago) (1980-04-06)
Preceded by	Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–1977)
Headquarters	6-A, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi-110002
Newspaper	Kamal Sandesh
Youth wing	Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha
Women's wing	BJP Mahila Morcha
Labour wing	Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh
Peasant's wing	BJP Kisan Morcha
Membership	180 million (2019)[1][2]
Ideology	Hindutva[3] Hindu nationalism[4] Integral humanism (Official) National conservatism[5] Social conservatism[6] Economic nationalism[7] Cultural nationalism[8] Right-wing populism[9][10]
Political position	Right-wing to far-right
International affiliation	International Democrat Union[11] Asia Pacific Democrat Union[12]
Colours	Saffron
ECI Status	National Party[13]
Alliance	National Democratic Alliance (NDA) North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA)
Seats in Lok Sabha	241 / 545 (currently 543 members + 2 nominated)
Seats in Rajya Sabha	78 / 245 (currently 233 members + 12 nominated)[14]
Seats in Vidhan Sabha(s)	1,331 / 4,071
Seats in Vidhan Parishad(s)	91 / 426
Website
www.bjp.org
Elections

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

History

Bharatiya Janata Party

The history of the Bharatiya Janata Party starts with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP was a political party created by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1980. At that time, the Indian National Congress was the political party that ruled India. The BJP's goal was to stop the Indian National Congress's policies.

Many people thought the BJP was part of the RSS because they had the same ideologies on leading Bharat.

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.