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Updated July 12, 2021
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Overview
The BJP and Congress are India’s only genuinely national
India, the world’s most populous democracy, is, according
parties. In previous recent national elections they together
to its Constitution, a “sovereign, socialist, secular,
won roughly half of all votes cast, but in 2019 the BJP
democratic republic” where the bulk of executive power
boosted its share to nearly 38% of the estimated 600 million
rests with the prime minister and his Council of Ministers
votes cast (to Congress’s 20%; turnout was a record 67%).
(the Indian president is a ceremonial chief of state with
The influence of regional and caste-based (and often
limited executive powers). Since its 1947 independence,
“family-run”) parties—although blunted by two
most of India’s 14 prime ministers have come from the
consecutive BJP majority victories—remains a crucial
country’s Hindi-speaking northern regions, and all but 3
variable in Indian politics. Such parties now hold one-third
have been upper-caste Hindus. The 543-seat Lok Sabha
of all Lok Sabha seats. In 2019, more than 8,000 candidates
(House of the People) is the locus of national power, with
and hundreds of parties vied for parliament seats; 33 of
directly elected representatives from each of the country’s
those parties won at least one seat. The seven parties listed
29 states and 7 union territories. The president has the
below account for 84% of Lok Sabha seats. The BJP’s
power to dissolve this body. A smaller upper house of a
economic reform agenda can be impeded in the Rajya
maximum 250 seats, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States),
Sabha, where opposition parties can align to block certain
may review, but not veto, revenue legislation, and has no
nonrevenue legislation (see Figure 1).
power over the prime minister or his/her cabinet. Lok Sabha
and state legislators are elected to five-year terms. Rajya
Figure 1. Party Representation in India’s Parliament
Sabha legislators are elected by state assemblies to six-year
terms; 12 are appointed by the president.
Elections to seat India’s 17th Lok Sabha were held in April-
May 2019, when the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP, or “Indian Peoples Party”) won a sweeping and repeat
victory under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2014, the
BJP had become the first party to attain a parliamentary
majority in 30 years, and it was able to expand that majority
in 2019 to become the first party to win consecutive
majorities since 1971. Modi, a self-avowed Hindu
nationalist, ran a campaign seen as divisive by many
analysts. While he and his party have long sought to
emphasize development and good governance, seven years
in office have brought a mixed record, and the 2019
election cycle revolved around nationalism, with growing
concerns among many observers that strident Hindu
Source: Graphic created by CRS.
majoritarianism represents a threat both to India’s religious
Key Government Officials
minorities and to the country’s syncretic traditions. Still,
hundreds of millions across the country voted to keep the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the
remarkably popular prime minister in power for another
economically dynamic and relatively developed western
term. The BJP, under then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari
state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming India’s
Vajpayee, previously had led a National Democratic
first-ever lower-caste prime minster. He is a lifelong
Alliance (NDA) coalition in power from 1999 to 2004.
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or
“National Volunteer Organization”; see below).
The Indian National Congress Party (hereinafter “Congress
Party”) and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who took the defense
coalition, in power from 2004-2014 with Manmohan Singh
portfolio in 2019, was home minister from 2014 to 2019,
in the top office, suffered a second consecutive electoral
BJP president during the 2014 campaign, and has served as
rout in 2019. The party of India’s first prime minister,
chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, as well as in the cabinet of
Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress had dominated the country’s
the BJP-led government from 1999 to 2004.
politics from 1947 to 1977. Nehru’s daughter, Indira
Home Minister Amit Shah, a top Modi lieutenant from
Gandhi (no relation to Mohandas Gandhi), and her son,
Gujarat and also a longtime RSS member, took his portfolio
Rajiv, also served as prime minister; both were assassinated
in 2019 and, in 2021, became the country’s first Minister of
in office. The party’s presumed prime ministerial candidate
Cooperation. He was BJP party president from 2014 to
in 2014 and 2019, Rajiv’s son, Rahul, again oversaw a
2020.
failure to win even the 10% of seats required to officially
lead the Lok Sabha opposition.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s first-ever
female finance minister, is also Minister for Corporate
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India’s Domestic Political Setting
Affairs. She is a Tamil Nadu native and was the BJP’s
join the national opposition in late 2019. The now-UPA
national spokeswoman before serving as India’s first female
member won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
defense minister from 2017 to 2019.
Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), a secularist, social
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was
democratic party with its main votebank in Bihar, is led by
foreign secretary from 2015 to 2018 and has served as
state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who aligned the party
India’s Ambassador to the United States and China. He
with the BJP in 2017. The NDA member won 16 Lok
became India’s first-ever career diplomat to hold the MEA
Sabha seats in 2019.
portfolio after joining the BJP in 2019.
Others: Two major regional parties, Uttar Pradesh’s
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, a former
Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, were bitter
investment banker and BJP stalwart from Maharashtra, has
rivals that struck a rare alliance to compete with the BJP in
also led the consumer affairs ministry since 2020, and
2019. They garnered a combined 47% of the state’s total
added the textiles ministry portfolio in 2021.
votes, but won a disproportionately low 15 of the state’s 80
Lok Sabha seats. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the regional All
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who took the post in
India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), an NDA
2014, is a former police officer and veteran intelligence
member, received nearly 19% of the state’s votes while
officer from Kerala and served as Director of the
winning one of the state’s 38 Lok Sabha seats.
Intelligence Bureau from 2004 to 2005 after a decade
running its operations wing.
Federal System and State Elections
President Ram Nath Kovind, a former BJP Rajya Sabhan
The Indian Constitution divides legislative powers into a
from Uttar Pradesh, became head of state in 2017.
Union List, a State List, and a Concurrent List. Although
India’s union government is granted more powers than in
Leading Parties
most other federal systems (including that of the United
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) arose in 1980 as the
States), the State List provides state assemblies and their
political wing of the RSS, a militant Hindu nationalist and
chief ministers with exclusive powers over 66 “items,”
social service group itself founded in 1925 and progenitor
including public order, law enforcement, health care, and
of dozens of affiliated organizations (the “Sangh Parivar”).
power, communication, and transportation networks.
The BJP advocates Hindu nationalism (“Hindutva”) and is
Nearly half of Indians live in only five states—Uttar
right-leaning on social policy with a generally more pro-
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya
business outlook than others, although it is also home to
“swadeshi” (self
Pradesh. Three of these have BJP chief ministers and one
-sufficiency) sentiments. The party
(Bihar) has a BJP-allied chief minister. Uttar Pradesh, with
emerged as the only national-level competitor for the Indian
more than 200 million citizens, was among five states
National Congress after 1998. The NDA-leading BJP won
holding elections in 2017. These were widely previewed as
303 Lok Sabha seats with 38% of the popular vote in 2019.
a referendum on the central government’s performance to
Indian National Congress is generally regarded as a
date, and they brought a sweeping win for the BJP, which
populist, center-left party, although a Congress-led
ousted the incumbent Samajwadi Party to take more than
government presided over significant economic
three-quarters of Uttar Pradesh’s assembly seats—the
liberalization in the early 1990s. Rajiv Gandhi’s widow,
largest majority for any party in the key “Hindu belt” state
Sonia, is UPA chairwoman and their son, Rahul, serves as
since 1980. Of the five most populous states, only West
party president. Both offered to resign in the wake of
Bengal has a non-NDA chief minister: in 2021 state
historic electoral defeats in 2014 and 2019. The UPA-
elections, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress survived
leading Congress Party won 52 Lok Sabha seats with 20%
an historic BJP surge to win reelection and another five
of the 2019 vote.
years as the state assembly’s majority party.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is a Tamil Nadu-
Despite this and other state-level setbacks (the Congress
based party led by former Chennai mayor M.K. Stalin.
Party won the most assembly seats in Karnataka and 3 other
Social democratic with a mostly ethnic Tamil constituency,
states in 2018), the BJP is now in power in 12 Indian states,
the UPA member won 23 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
with NDA-allied chief ministers in another 4. The Congress
Party controls three state governments, with UPA allies
All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), a professedly
leading three others. Six states, including West Bengal and
secular party, wins its support in West Bengal, where party
Andhra Pradesh, are run by parties independent of either
leader Mamata Banerjee is also chief minister. The AITMC,
national coalition. Steadily broadening its state assembly
a UPA member from 2004 to 2012, won 22 Lok Sabha
presence in recent years—which directly translates to
seats in 2019.
increased presence in the Rajya Sabha—the BJP now
YSR Congress (YSRCP) was founded in 2011 by
accounts for more than one-third of the country’s state
Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of a former Andhra Pradesh
legislators, as compared to just under one-fifth for the
chief minister, after an acrimonious split with Congress. It
declining Congress.
now dominates the state assembly and won 22 Lok Sabha
seats in 2019.
K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs
Shiv Sena is a vociferously Hindu nationalist, ethnic
IF10298
Marathi party based in Maharashtra that had long aligned
itself with the BJP at the national level, but split away to
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India’s Domestic Political Setting
Disclaimer
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