TheBharatiya Janata Party (abbreviatedBJP) is one of the two majorpolitical parties inIndia. (The second being theIndian National Congress). The Indian Lok Sabhaelections in 2024 the BJP has 240 of the 542 seats in theLok Sabha, thelower house of theParliament of India and 78 of the 238 seats inRajya Sabha, theupper house of the Parliament of India. Jayprakash Nadda is the national president of BJP.
FormerPrime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee andDeputy Prime MinisterL. K. Advani founded the party in April 1980.
"Bharatiya" means "Indian" and "Janata" means "People". The BJP'spolitical beliefs are similar to the beliefs of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).
The history of the Bharatiya Janata Party starts with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP was a political party created byAtal 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 leadingBharat.
The party's first electioncampaign was aboutKashmir. 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, wasarrested for protesting in Kashmir, when he was ordered not to do so. He died in prison, soDeendayal 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.
In the 1967 Indian elections, many political parties, including the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, joined up together to win amajority of the seats of many Indian states, includingMadhya Pradesh,Bihar, andUttar Pradesh. This was the first time the BJS had held any political office. In 1977, after the end of aState 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.
