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Updated May 22, 2018
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Overview
the 2014 national election and 35 of those won seats. The 8
India, the world’s most populous democracy, is, according
parties listed below account for 67% of the total vote and
to its Constitution, a “sovereign, socialist, secular,
85% of Lok Sabha seats (see Figure 1).
democratic republic” where the bulk of executive power
rests with the prime minister and his Council of Ministers
Figure 1. Major Party Representation in the Lok Sabha
(the Indian president is a ceremonial chief of state with
(543 total seats + 2 appointed)
limited executive powers). Since its 1947 independence,
most of India’s 14 prime ministers have come from the
country’s Hindi-speaking northern regions and all but 3
have been upper-caste Hindus. The 543-seat, Lok Sabha
(House of the People) is the locus of national power, with
directly elected representatives from each of the country’s
29 states and 7 union territories. The president has the
power to dissolve this body. A smaller upper house of a
maximum 250 seats, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States),
may review, but not veto, revenue legislation, and has no
power over the prime minister or his/her cabinet. Lok Sabha
and state legislators are elected to five-year terms. Rajya
Sabha legislators are elected by state legislatures to six-year
terms; 12 are appointed by the president.
The BJP’s governance agenda can be impeded in the Rajya
Elections to seat India’s 16th Lok Sabha were held in April-
Sabha, where opposition parties can align to block certain
May 2014, when the main opposition Bharatiya Janata
legislation (see Figure 2).
Party (BJP or “Indian Peoples Party”) won a historic
victory under then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Figure 2. Major Party Representation in the Rajya
The BJP became the first party to attain a parliamentary
Sabha
majority since 1984. Prime Minister Modi, a self-avowed
(233 total seats + 12 appointed)
Hindu nationalist who arose from humble social
circumstances, ran a campaign emphasizing economic
development and good governance, while largely omitting
the sometimes strident Hindu majoritarian rhetoric he has
issued in the past. The BJP, under then-Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, had led a National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) coalition in power from 1999-2004.
The previously incumbent Indian National Congress Party
(hereinafter “Congress Party”) and its United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) coalition suffered a crushing defeat after
ten years in power with Manmohan Singh in the top office.
Congress, the party of India’s first prime minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru, dominated the country’s politics from
1947-1977. Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi (no relation to
Key Government Officials
Mohandas Gandhi), and her son, Rajiv, also served as prime
minister; both were assassinated in office. The party’s
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of the
presumed prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Rajiv’s son
economically dynamic and relatively developed western
Rahul, oversaw the party’s failure to win even the 10% of
state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming India’s
seats required to officially lead the Lok Sabha opposition.
first-ever lower-caste prime minster. He is a longtime
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or
The BJP and Congress Party are India’s only truly national
“National Volunteer Organization”; see below).
parties; as in the previous national election, they together
won roughly half of all votes cast in 2014. The influence of
Home Minister Rajnath Singh was BJP president during
regional and caste-based parties—although blunted by the
the 2014 campaign and has served both as Chief Minister of
BJP’s outright majority victory—remains an important
Uttar Pradesh and as Minister of Agriculture in the previous
variable in Indian politics. Such parties now hold more than
BJP-led government.
200 seats in parliament. Some 464 parties participated in
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India’s Domestic Political Setting
External Affairs Minister and Overseas Indian Affairs
of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The BJD won 20 Lok
Minister Sushma Swaraj, a BJP stalwart from Harayana,
Sabha seats with 1.7% of the 2014 vote.
has won seven parliamentary elections and was Leader of
the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Shiv Sena is a vociferously Hindu nationalist, ethnic
Marathi party based in Maharashtra that has long aligned
Finance Minister and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun
itself with the BJP at the national level. It won 18 Lok
Jaitley, an eminent corporate lawyer from Punjab and
Sabha seats with 1.9% of the 2014 vote.
former BJP national spokesman, was Minister of Law and
Justice in the previous BJP-led government.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP), created to serve the Telugu-
speakers of Andhra Pradesh, dominated 2014’s state-level
Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, a Shiv
election, making its leader, N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief
Sena member from Maharashtra until 2014, led the railways
minister of “rump” Andhra Pradesh, which was bifurcated
ministry until his September 2017 appointment.
to create the new state of Telangana in 2014. TDP won 16
Lok Sabha seats with 2.5% of the 2014 vote.
Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a Tamil Nadu
native, served as BJP national spokeswoman and minister
Left Front, a coalition of four communist parties led by the
of state before becoming India’s second-ever female
Communist Party of India-Marxist, finds most of its
defense minister in September 2017.
votebank in West Bengal and Kerala. A non-coalition UPA
supporter from 2004-2008, the Left Front has suffered three
National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval is a veteran
major electoral setbacks since 2009. This coalition won 10
intelligence officer from Kerala who served as Director of
Lok Sabha seats with 3.4% of the 2014 vote.
the Intelligence Bureau from 2004 to 2005.
Others: Three major regional parties—the Janata Dal
President Ram Nath Kovind, a former BJP Rajya Sabhan
(United) of Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party and
from Uttar Pradesh, became head of state in July 2017.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—were almost completely
submerged by the “Modi wave” in 2014, winning only
Leading Parties
three, five, and zero Lok Sabha seats, respectively. The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was born in 1980 as the
BSP did not win a single seat despite garnering about 23
political wing of the RSS, a militant Hindu nationalist and
million votes, more than 4% of the total.
social service group itself founded in 1925 and progenitor
of dozens of affiliated organizations (the “Sangh parivar”).
Federal System and State Elections
The BJP advocates Hindu nationalism (“Hindutva”) and is
The Indian Constitution divides legislative powers into a
right-leaning on social policy with a generally more pro-
Union List, a State List, and a Concurrent List. Although
business outlook than others, although it is also home to
India’s union government is granted more powers than in
“swadeshi” (self-sufficiency) sentiments. The party
most other federal systems (including that of the United
emerged as the only national-level competitor for the Indian
States), the State List provides state legislatures and their
National Congress in recent decades. The BJP won 282 Lok
chief ministers with exclusive powers over 66 “items,”
Sabha seats with 31% of the popular vote in 2014.
including public order; law enforcement; healthcare; and
power, communication, and transportation networks.
Indian National Congress is generally considered to be a
populist, secularist, and left-leaning party, although a
A majority of Indians live in only six states—Uttar Pradesh,
Congress Party-led government did preside over significant
Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and
economic liberalization in the early 1990s. Rajiv Gandhi’s
Madhya Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh, with more than 200 million
widow, Sonia, is party president and their son, Rahul,
citizens, was among five states holding elections in early
serves as party vice president. Both offered to resign in the
2017; these were widely previewed as being a referendum
wake of 2014’s historic electoral defeat. The party won 44
on the central government’s performance to date. The Uttar
Lok Sabha seats with 19.1% of the 2014 vote.
Pradesh results brought a sweeping win for the BJP, which
ousted the incumbent Samajwadi Party to take more than
All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is a
three-quarters of state assembly seats—the largest majority
Tamil Nadu-based party led by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa
for any party in the key state since 1980.
until her 2016 death. It is populist with a mostly ethnic
Tamil constituency. A BJP ally, the AIADMK won 37 Lok
Also winning control of governments in Manipur,
Sabha seats with 3.3% of the 2014 vote.
Uttarakhand, and Tripura, the BJP is now in power in 15 of
India’s 29 states, with allied party chief ministers in another
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), a professedly
7. The Congress Party controls six state governments after
secular party, wins its support in West Bengal, where party
taking Punjab in 2017. Steadily broadening its state-level
leader Mamata Banerjee is also chief minister. The TMC
presence in recent years, the BJP now accounts for about
was a member of the Congress-led UPA from 2004-2012. It
one-third of all of the country’s state legislators, as
won 34 Lok Sabha seats with 3.8% of the 2014 vote.
compared to one-fifth for the declining Congress.
Biju Janata Dal (BJD), an electoral ally of the BJP in the
K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs
recent past, but also professedly secular in outlook,
dominated the vote in the Odisha state under the leadership
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India’s Domestic Political Setting
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