Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s bicameral legislature (Parliament). The Rajya Sabha was designed by the framers of the Indian constitution as a check on the power of the Lok Sabha (“House of the People”), the legislature’s lower house. It represents the interests of the states and union territories.
The Rajya Sabha may have a maximum of 250 members, most of whom are elected to six-year terms by the legislative assemblies of the states and the union territories; 12 are appointed by the president of India. The allocation of seats to each state and union territory is determined on the basis of population, with each state or territory receiving a minimum of one seat. The terms of one-third of the house’s membership expire every two years. The majority parties in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha are not necessarily the same.
The powers of the Rajya Sabha are similar to those of the Lok Sabha. Most bills can be introduced in either house. In order to become law, they must be approved by both houses and receive the assent of the president of India. The Rajya Sabha, however, cannot introduce, reject, or amend revenue bills, which are the sole prerogative of the Lok Sabha, nor can it issue a vote of confidence in the government, which is also the responsibility of the lower house. The Rajya Sabha nevertheless retains some exclusive powers, most notably the power to authorize Parliament (by a two-thirds majority) to legislate on matters in the domain of state legislatures. Unlike the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha is not subject to dissolution by the prime minister.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pro-Hindu political party of postindependence India. The party has enjoyed broad support among members of the higher castes and in northern India. It has attempted to attract support from lower castes, particularly through the appointment of several lower-caste members to prominent party positions. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured majority in the 2014, 2019, and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Although the BJP was able to secure a majority on its own in the 2014 and 2019 elections, it fell short of the 272 seats it needed to secure a majority on its own in the 2024 elections.
Origin and establishment
The BJP traces its roots to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS; Indian People’s Association), which was established in 1951 as the political wing of the pro-Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; “National Volunteers Corps”) by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The BJS advocated the rebuilding of India in accordance with Hindu culture and called for the formation of a strong unified state.
In 1967 the BJS gained a substantial foothold in the Hindi-speaking regions of northern India. Ten years later the party, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, joined three other political parties to form the Janata Party and took over the reins of government. Plagued by factionalism and internal disputes, however, the government collapsed in July 1979. The BJP was formally established in 1980, following a split by dissidents within the Janata coalition, whose leaders wanted to prohibit elected BJS officials from participating in the RSS. (Critics of the RSS have consistently accused it of political and religious extremism, particularly because one of its members had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.) The BJS subsequently reorganized itself as the BJP under the leadership of Vajpayee, Lal Krishan Advani, and Murali Manohar Joshi.
The BJP advocated Hindutva (“Hindu-ness”), an ideology that sought to define Indian culture in terms of Hindu values, and it was highly critical of the secular policies and practices of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). The BJP began to have electoral success in 1989, when it capitalized on anti-Muslim feeling by calling for the erection of a Hindu temple in an area in Ayodhya considered sacred by Hindus but at that time occupied by the Babri Masjid (Mosque of Bābur). By 1991 the BJP had considerably increased its political appeal, capturing 117 seats in the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament) and taking power in four states.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 by organizations seen to be associated with the BJP caused a major backlash against the party. The mosque’s destruction also led to violence throughout the country that left more than 1,000 dead. The party was regarded with skepticism and suspicion by many committed to secularism in contemporary India. To alleviate fear among the public, restore confidence in the party, and expand its base, the BJP’s leaders undertook a series of rath yatras (“journeys on the carriage”), or political marches, in which the Hindu god Rama was symbolically invoked as the symbol of cultural renaissance.
Electoral success and the National Democratic Alliance government
In elections in 1996 the BJP emerged as the largest single party in the Lok Sabha and was invited by India’s president to form a government. However, its tenure in office was short-lived, as it could not muster the majority required to rule in the 545-member lower house. In 1998 the BJP and its allies were able to form a majority government with Vajpayee as prime minister. In May of that year, nuclear weapons tests ordered by Vajpayee drew widespread international condemnation. After 13 months in office, coalition partner All India Dravidian Progressive Federation (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham) withdrew its support, and Vajpayee was prompted to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, which he lost by the margin of a single vote.
The BJP contested the 1999 parliamentary elections as the organizer of the NDA, a coalition of more than 20 national and regional parties. The alliance secured a governing majority, with the BJP winning 182 of the coalition’s 294 seats. Vajpayee, as leader of the largest party in the alliance, was again elected prime minister. Although Vajpayee sought to resolve the country’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan over the Kashmir region and made India a world leader in information technology, the coalition lost its majority in the 2004 parliamentary elections to the Congress Party’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition, and Vajpayee resigned from office. The party’s share of seats in the Lok Sabha was reduced from 137 to 116 in the 2009 parliamentary elections, as the UPA coalition again prevailed.
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Narendra ModiIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to the office in 2014. He won a second term in 2019 and was sworn in for a third term on June 9, 2024.
As the 2014 Lok Sabha elections grew near, however, the BJP’s fortunes began to rise, largely because of growing discontent with Congress Party rule. Narendra Modi, the longtime chief minister (head of government) of Gujarat state, was chosen to lead the BJP electoral campaign, thus making him the party’s candidate for prime minister. The polling—held in several stages in April and May—produced an overwhelming victory for the BJP. The party won 282 seats outright, a clear majority in the chamber, and its NDA partners added 54 more. Shortly after election results were announced, Modi was named head of the party members in parliament, and he began forming a government that included not only senior BJP officials but also several leaders from parties allied with the coalition. Modi was sworn in as prime minister on May 26, 2014.
BJP rule included a mixture of policies relating to the economy and to promoting Hindutva. On November 8, 2016, 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes were demonetized with just a few hours’ notice with the intent of stopping “black money”—cash used for illicit activities. More than 99 percent of the banknotes were returned and replaced, indicating even “black money” had been successfully exchanged and returned to circulation. But the policy did broaden the income tax base through increased bank activity and stimulated the use of cashless transactions. In 2017 the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced, reforming the collection of consumption taxes nationwide. Meanwhile, the BJP appealed to notions of Hindutva through measures such as banning the sale of cows for slaughter, a move later overturned by the Supreme Court. The party likewise legislated name changes for certain jurisdictions.
As both unemployment and the cost of living continued to rise and Modi’s grandiose promises on economic growth remained unfulfilled, the BJP began suffering local election losses. In 2018 the party lost all five state elections held in November and December, including those in its strongholds of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. On the national level, however, the party was able to pull off a landslide victory in April–May 2019 and even expanded its representation in the Lok Sabha. This was in part due to the support it gained after the government’s handling of a security crisis in Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019. Moreover, Congress, the BJP’s most viable competitor, failed to portray itself as a worthwhile alternative to the BJP-led government. Later that year, though, the BJP lost control of Maharashtra state after losing the support of a prominent regional party.
The party’s second term in power was marked by swift and heavy-handed actions. In August 2019 the BJP-led government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy and in October brought the former state under the direct control of the union government. Communications and movement in the territory were severely restricted during the transition. In March 2020 the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic prompted the government to implement a strict national lockdown until June. As restrictions were eased, the BJP made efforts to counter the economic impact of the pandemic. Those efforts included Modi’s use of executive action to reduce obstacles to selling produce and to encourage private investment. Critics argued that the changes would make farmers vulnerable to exploitation, but the reforms were nevertheless codified into law without input from those concerned. Protests against the measures escalated in January 2021 (including clashes with police and the storming of the Red Fort on Republic Day), and the government took extraordinary measures to stifle them, implementing Internet blackouts and punishing organizers, participants, and journalists. Nevertheless, opposition to the reforms was sustained into November, and the BJP, wary of losing support in upcoming state elections, announced that they would be repealed.
The BJP aimed to secure 370 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections even though it needed just over 272 seats to win the elections. In a surprising turn of events, however, it faced stiff competition from the opposing INDIA alliance and failed to secure a majority on its own even though its alliance, the NDA, won enough seats to form the government at the center.
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