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Updated February 1, 2023
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”
The BJP and Congress are, in practice, India’s only
where the bulk of executive power
genuinely national parties. In the 2009 and 2014 elections
rests with the prime minister and his/her Council of
they together won roughly half of all votes cast nationally,
Ministers. The Indian president is a ceremonial chief of
but in 2019 the BJP boosted its share to nearly 38% of the
state with limited executive powers. Since its 1947
independence, most of India’s 14 prime ministers have
estimated 600 million votes cast (to Congress’s 20%;
turnout was a record 67%). The influence of regional and
come from the country’s Hindi-speaking northern regions,
caste-based (and often “family-run”) parties—although
and all but 3 have been upper-caste Hindus. The 543-seat
blunted by two consecutive BJP majority victories—
Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the locus of national
remains a crucial variable in Indian politics. Such parties
power, with directly elected representatives from each of
the country’s 2
hold roughly one-third of all Lok Sabha seats. In 2019,
8 states and 8 union territories. A smaller
more than 8,000 candidates and hundreds of parties vied for
upper house of a maximum 250 seats, the Rajya Sabha
parliament seats; 33 of those parties won at least one seat.
(Council of States), may review, but not veto, revenue
The seven parties listed below account for 84% of Lok
legislation, and has no powers over the prime minister or
Sabha seats. The BJP’s economic reform agenda can be
the cabinet. Lok Sabha and state legislators are elected to
impeded in the Rajya Sabha, where opposition parties can
five-year terms. Rajya Sabha legislators are elected by state
align to block certain nonrevenue legislation (see Figure 1).
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 economic development and good
governance, nine years in office have brought a mixed
record on those accounts. The 2019 election cycle (and a
key 2022 state election in Uttar Pradesh) revolved around
nationalism and religion, with growing concerns among
Source: Parliament of India. Graphic created by CRS.
many observers that strident Hindu majoritarianism
represents a threat to the status of India’s religious
Key Government Officials
minorities and to the country’s syncretic traditions. Still,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the
hundreds of millions across the country voted to keep the
economically dynamic and relatively developed western
remarkably popular prime minister in power into 2024. The
state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming India’s
BJP, under then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
first-ever lower-caste prime minster. He is a lifelong
previously had led a National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or
coalition in power from 1999 to 2004.
“National Volunteer Organization”; see below).
The Indian National Congress Party (hereinafter “Congress
Party”) and its Un
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who took the defense
ited Progressive Alliance (UPA)
portfolio in 2019, was home minister from 2014 to 2019,
coalition, in power from 2004-2014 with Manmohan Singh
BJP president during the 2014 campaign, and has served as
in the top office, suffered a second consecutive electoral
chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, as well as in the cabinet of
rout in 2019. The party of India’s first prime minister,
the BJP-led government from 1999 to 2004.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress had dominated the country’s
politics from 1947 to 1996. 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 for 2014-2020.
in 2014 and 2019, Rajiv’s son, Rahul, again oversaw a
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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) (JDU), a secularist, social democratic
foreign secretary from 2015 to 2018 and has served as
party with its main votebank in Bihar, is led by state Chief
India’s Ambassador to both the United States and China.
Minister Nitish Kumar, who aligned the party with the BJP
He became India’s first-ever career diplomat to hold the
in 2017, then ended the alliance in 2022 to join the
MEA portfolio after joining the BJP in 2019.
opposition. The JDU won 16 Lok 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 Droupadi Murmu, a recent governor of
Federal System and State Elections
Jharkhand, is the second woman and first member of a
The Indian Constitution divides legislative powers into a
tribal community to hold the office.
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. In 2021
-sufficiency) sentiments. The party
state elections in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s
emerged as the only national-level competitor for the Indian
Trinamool Congress survived a historic BJP surge to win
National Congress after 1998. The NDA-leading BJP won
reelection as the state assembly’s majority party. Uttar
303 Lok Sabha seats with 38% of the popular vote in 2019.
Pradesh, with more than 200 million citizens, was among
Indian National Congress (INC) is generally regarded as a
five states holding elections in 2022. These were widely
populist, center-left party, although a Congress-led
previewed as a referendum on the central government’s
government presided over significant economic
performance to date, and they brought a second sweeping
liberalization in the early 1990s. Rajiv Gandhi’s widow,
win for the BJP, which took two-thirds of Uttar Pradesh’s
Sonia, is UPA chairwoman and their son, Rahul, serves as
assembly seats (with 41% of the vote) under Chief Minster
party president; both offered to resign in the wake of
Yogi Adityanath, a Hindutva firebrand. Also in 2022, the
historic electoral defeats in 2014 and 2019. The UPA-
Congress Party lost control of Punjab, but unseated the BJP
leading Congress Party won 52 Lok Sabha seats with 20%
government in Himachal Pradesh.
of the 2019 vote.
The nationally ruling BJP is now in power in 11 Indian
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is a Tamil Nadu-
states, with NDA-allied chief ministers seated in another 5.
based party led by former Chennai mayor M.K. Stalin.
The Congress Party controls three state governments; its
Social democratic with a mostly ethnic Tamil constituency,
UPA allies lead three others. Six states, including Andhra
the UPA member won 23 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Pradesh, Kerala, and West Bengal, are run by parties
independent of either national coalition (as is the National
All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC), a
Capitol Territory of Delhi). Steadily broadening its state
professedly secular party, wins its support in West Bengal,
assembly presence in recent years—which directly
where party leader Mamata Banerjee is also chief minister.
translates to increased presence in the Rajya Sabha—the
The TMC, a UPA member from 2004 to 2012 and now
BJP now accounts for more than one-third of the country’s
unaffilliated, won 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
state legislators, as compared to under one-fifth for the
YSR Congress (YSRCP) was founded in 2011 by
declining Congress.
Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of a former Andhra Pradesh
chief minister, after an acrimonious split with the Congress
K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs
Party. It now dominates the state assembly and won 22 Lok
Sabha seats in 2019.
IF10298
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India’s Domestic Political Setting
Disclaimer
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