link to page 1 
Updated April 4, 2022
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Overview
failure to win even the 10% of seats required to officially
India, the world’s most populous democracy, is, according
lead the Lok Sabha opposition.
to its Constitution, a “sovereign, socialist, secular,
democratic republic” where
The BJP and Congress are, in practice, India’s only
the bulk of executive power
genuinely national parties. In the 2009 and 2014 elections
rests with the prime minister and his Council of Ministers
they together won roughly half of all votes cast nationally,
(the Indian president is a ceremonial chief of state with
but in 2019 the BJP boosted its share to nearly 38% of the
limited executive powers). Since its 1947 independence,
most of India’s 14 prime ministers have come from the
estimated 600 million votes cast (to Congress’s 20%;
country’s Hindi
turnout was a record 67%). The influence of regional and
-speaking northern regions, and all but 3
caste-based (and often “family-run”) parties—although
have been upper-caste Hindus. The 543-seat Lok Sabha
blunted by two consecutive BJP majority victories—
(House of the People) is the locus of national power, with
directly elected representatives from each of the country’s
remains a crucial variable in Indian politics. Such parties
hold roughly one-third of all Lok Sabha seats. In 2019,
28 states and 8 union territories. The president has the
more than 8,000 candidates and hundreds of parties vied for
power to dissolve this body. A smaller upper house of a
parliament seats; 33 of those parties won at least one seat.
maximum 250 seats, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States),
The seven parties listed below account for 84% of Lok
may review, but not veto, revenue legislation, and has no
Sabha seats. The BJP’s economic reform agenda can be
power over the prime minister or his/her cabinet. Lok Sabha
impeded in the Rajya Sabha, where opposition parties can
and state legislators are elected to five-year terms. Rajya
align to block certain nonrevenue legislation (see Figure 1).
Sabha legislators are elected by state assemblies to six-year
terms; 12 are appointed by the president.
Figure 1. Party Representation in India’s Parliament
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 after 30 years of coalition governments, 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,
eight years in office have brought a mixed record on those
accounts, and the 2019 election cycle (and key 2022 state
elections in Uttar Pradesh) revolved around nationalism and
religion, with growing concerns among many observers that
strident Hindu majoritarianism represents a threat both to
Source: Graphic created by CRS.
India’s religious minorities and to the country’s syncretic
traditions. Still, hundreds of millions across the country
Key Government Officials
voted to keep the remarkably popular prime minister in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the
power for another term. The BJP, under then-Prime
economically dynamic and relatively developed western
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, previously had led a
state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming India’s
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition in power
first-ever lower-caste prime minster. He is a lifelong
from 1999 to 2004.
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or
“National Volunteer Organization”
The Indian National Congress Party (hereinafter “Congress
; see below).
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
Gandhi (no relation to Mohandas Gandhi), and her son,
Home Minister Amit Shah, a top Modi lieutenant from
Rajiv, also served as prime minister; both were assassinated
Gujarat and also a longtime RSS member, took his portfolio
in office. The party’s presumed prime ministerial candidate
in 2019 and, in 2021, became the country’s first Minister of
in 2014 and 2019, Rajiv’s son, Rahul, again oversaw a
Cooperation. He was BJP party president for 2014-2020.
https://crsreports.congress.gov
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s first-ever
Shiv Sena is a vociferously Hindu nationalist, ethnic
female finance minister, is also Minister for Corporate
Marathi party based in Maharashtra that had long aligned
Affairs. She is a Tamil Nadu native and was the BJP’s
itself with the BJP at the national level, but split away to
national spokeswoman before serving as India’s first female
join the national opposition in 2019. The now-UPA
defense minister from 2017 to 2019.
member won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was
Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), a secularist, social
foreign secretary from 2015 to 2018 and has served as
democratic party with its main votebank in Bihar, is led by
India’s Ambassador to both the United States and China.
state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who aligned the party
He became India’s first-ever career diplomat to hold the
with the BJP in 2017. The NDA member won 16 Lok
MEA portfolio after joining the BJP in 2019.
Sabha seats in 2019.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, a former
Others: Two major regional parties, Uttar Pradesh’s
investment banker and BJP stalwart from Maharashtra, has
Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, were bitter
also led the consumer affairs ministry since 2020, and
rivals that struck a rare alliance to compete with the BJP in
added the textiles ministry portfolio in 2021.
2019. They garnered a combined 47% of the state’s total
votes, but won a disproportionately low 15 of the state’s 80
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who took the post in
Lok Sabha seats. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the regional All
2014, is a former police officer and veteran intelligence
India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), an NDA
officer from Kerala who served as Director of the
member, received nearly 19% of the state’s votes while
Intelligence Bureau from 2004 to 2005 after a decade
winning one of the state’s 38 Lok Sabha seats.
running its operations wing.
President Ram Nath Kovind, a former BJP Rajya Sabhan
Federal System and State Elections
from Uttar Pradesh, became head of state in 2017.
The Indian Constitution divides legislative powers into a
Union List, a State List, and a Concurrent List. Although
Leading Parties
India’s union government is granted more powers than in
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) arose in 1980 as the
most other federal systems (including that of the United
political wing of the RSS, a militant Hindu nationalist and
States), the State List provides state assemblies and their
social service group itself founded in 1925 and progenitor
chief ministers with exclusive powers over 66 “items,”
of dozens of affiliated organizations (the “Sangh Parivar”).
including public order, law enforcement, health care, and
The BJP advocates Hindu nationalism (“Hindutva”) and is
power, communication, and transportation networks.
right-leaning on social policy with a generally more pro-
Nearly half of Indians live in only five states—Uttar
business outlook than others, although it is also home to
“swadeshi” (self
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya
-sufficiency) sentiments. The party
Pradesh. Three of these have BJP chief ministers and one
emerged as the only national-level competitor for the Indian
(Bihar) has a BJP-allied chief minister. Uttar Pradesh, with
National Congress after 1998. The NDA-leading BJP won
more than 200 million citizens, was among five states
303 Lok Sabha seats with 38% of the popular vote in 2019.
holding elections in 2022. These were widely previewed as
Indian National Congress is generally regarded as a
a referendum on the central government’s performance to
populist, center-left party, although a Congress-led
date, and they brought a second sweeping win for the BJP,
government presided over significant economic
which took two-thirds of Uttar Pradesh’s assembly seats
liberalization in the early 1990s. Rajiv Gandhi’s widow,
(with 41% of the vote) under Chief Minster Yogi
Sonia, is UPA chairwoman and their son, Rahul, serves as
Adityanath, a Hindutva firebrand. Of India’s five most
party president; both offered to resign in the wake of
populous states, only West Bengal has a non-NDA chief
historic electoral defeats in 2014 and 2019. The UPA-
minister; in 2021 state elections, Mamata Banerjee’s
leading Congress Party won 52 Lok Sabha seats with 20%
Trinamool Congress survived a historic BJP surge to win
of the 2019 vote.
reelection as the state assembly’s majority party.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is a Tamil Nadu-
The ruling BJP is now in power in 12 Indian states, with
based party led by former Chennai mayor M.K. Stalin.
NDA-allied chief ministers in another 4. After losing in
Social democratic with a mostly ethnic Tamil constituency,
Punjab in 2022, the Congress Party controls two state
the UPA member won 23 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
governments, with UPA allies leading three others. Six
states, including West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, are run
All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), a professedly
by parties independent of either national coalition. Steadily
secular party, wins its support in West Bengal, where party
broadening its state assembly presence in recent years—
leader Mamata Banerjee is also chief minister. The AITMC,
which directly translates to increased presence in the Rajya
a UPA member from 2004 to 2012, won 22 Lok Sabha
Sabha—the BJP now accounts for more than one-third of
seats in 2019.
the country’s state legislators, as compared to under one-
YSR Congress (YSRCP) was founded in 2011 by
fifth for the declining Congress.
Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of a former Andhra Pradesh
chief minister, after an acrimonious split with Congress. It
K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs
now dominates the state assembly and won 22 Lok Sabha
seats in 2019.
IF10298
https://crsreports.congress.gov
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to
congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress.
Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has
been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the
United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be
reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include
copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you
wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10298 · VERSION 18 · UPDATED