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Updated June 1, 2023
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Overview
March 2023, Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a criminal
India, the world’s most populous democracy, is, according
defamation case, which the Congress Party contends was
to its Constitution, a “sovereign, socialist, secular,
politically motivated, and expelled from Parliament.
democratic republic” where the bulk of executive power
The BJP and Congress are, in practice, India’s only
rests with the prime minister and his Council of Ministers.
genuinely national parties. In the 2009 and 2014 elections
The Indian president is a ceremonial chief of state with
they together won roughly half of all votes cast nationally,
limited executive powers. Since its 1947 independence,
most of India’s 14 prime ministers have come from the
but in 2019 the BJP boosted its share to nearly 38% of the
country’s Hindi
estimated 600 million votes cast (to Congress’s 20%;
-speaking northern regions, and all but 3
turnout was a record 67%). The influence of regional and
have been upper-caste Hindus. The 543-seat Lok Sabha
caste-based (and often “family-run”) parties—although
(House of the People) is the locus of national power, with
directly elected representatives from each of the country’s
blunted by two consecutive BJP majority victories—
remains a crucial variable in Indian politics. Such parties
28 states and 8 union territories. A smaller upper house of a
hold roughly one-third of all Lok Sabha seats. In 2019,
maximum 250 seats, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States),
more than 8,000 candidates and hundreds of parties vied for
may review, but not veto, revenue legislation, and has no
parliament seats; 33 of those parties won at least one seat.
powers over the prime minister or the cabinet. Lok Sabha
The seven parties listed below account for 84% of Lok
and state legislators are elected to five-year terms. Rajya
Sabha seats. The BJP’s economic reform agenda can be
Sabha members are elected by state assemblies to six-year
impeded in the Rajya Sabha, where opposition parties can
terms; 12 are appointed by the president.
align to block certain nonrevenue legislation (see Figure 1).
Elections to seat India’s 17th Lok Sabha were held in April-
May 2019, when the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party
Figure 1. Party Representation in India’s Parliament
(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
many observers that strident Hindu majoritarianism

represents a threat to the status of India’s religious
Source: Parliament of India as of June 2023. Graphic created by CRS.
minorities and to the country’s syncretic traditions. Still,
hundreds of millions across the country voted to keep the
Key Government Officials
remarkably popular prime minister in power into 2024. The
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the
BJP, under then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
economically dynamic and relatively developed western
previously had led a National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming India’s
coalition in power from 1999 to 2004.
first-ever lower-caste prime minster. He is a lifelong
The Indian National Congress Party (hereinafter “Congress
member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or
Party”) and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
“National Volunteer Organization”; see below).
coalition, in power from 2004-2014 with Manmohan Singh
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who took the defense
in the top office, suffered a second consecutive electoral
portfolio in 2019, was home minister from 2014 to 2019,
rout in 2019. The party of India’s first prime minister,
BJP president during the 2014 campaign, and has served as
Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress had dominated the country’s
chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, as well as in the cabinet of
politics from 1947 to 1996. Nehru’s daughter, Indira
the BJP-led government from 1999 to 2004.
Gandhi, and her son, Rajiv, also served as prime minister;
both were assassinated in office. The party’s presumed
Home Minister Amit Shah, a top Modi lieutenant from
prime ministerial candidate in 2014 and 2019, Rajiv’s son,
Gujarat and also a longtime RSS member, took his portfolio
in 2019 and, in 2021, became the country’s first Minister of
Rahul, again oversaw a failure to win even the 10% of seats
required to officially lead the Lok Sabha opposition. In
Cooperation. He was BJP party president for 2014-2020.
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India’s Domestic Political Setting
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s first-ever
fractured in 2022, but a BJP-allied Shiv Sena chief minister
female finance minister, is also Minister for Corporate
still sits in Mumbai. The party won 18 Lok Sabha seats in
Affairs. She is a Tamil Nadu native and was the BJP’s
the 2019 election.
national spokeswoman before serving as India’s first female
Janata Dal (United) (JDU), a secularist, social democratic
defense minister from 2017 to 2019.
party with its main votebank in Bihar, is led by state Chief
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was
Minister Nitish Kumar, who aligned the party with the BJP
foreign secretary from 2015 to 2018 and has served as
in 2017, then ended the alliance in 2022 to join the UPA
India’s Ambassador to both the United States and China.
opposition. The JDU won 16 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
He became India’s first-ever career diplomat to hold the
Others: Two major regional parties, Uttar Pradesh’s
MEA portfolio after joining the BJP in 2019.
Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, were bitter
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, a former
rivals that struck a rare alliance to compete with the BJP in
investment banker and BJP stalwart from Maharashtra, has
2019. They garnered a combined 47% of the state’s total
also led the consumer affairs ministry since 2020, and
votes, but won a disproportionately low 15 of the state’s 80
added the textiles ministry portfolio in 2021.
Lok Sabha seats. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the regional All
India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), an NDA
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who took the post in
member, received nearly 19% of the state’s votes while
2014, is a former police officer and veteran intelligence
winning one of the state’s 38 Lok Sabha seats.
officer from Kerala who served as Director of the
Intelligence Bureau from 2004 to 2005 after a decade
Federal System and State Elections
running its operations wing.
The Indian Constitution divides legislative powers into a
President Droupadi Murmu, a recent governor of
Union List, a State List, and a Concurrent List. Although
Jharkhand, is the second woman and first member of a
India’s union government is granted more powers than in
tribal community to hold the office.
most other federal systems (including that of the United
States), the State List provides state assemblies and their
Leading Parties
chief ministers with exclusive powers over 66 “items,”
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) arose in 1980 as the
including public order, law enforcement, health care, and
political wing of the RSS, a militant Hindu nationalist and
power, communication, and transportation networks.
social service group itself founded in 1925 and progenitor
Nearly half of Indians live in only five states: Uttar
of dozens of affiliated organizations (the “Sangh Parivar”).
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya
The BJP advocates Hindu nationalism (“Hindutva”) and is
Pradesh. Three of these have BJP chief ministers. In 2021
right-leaning on social policy with a generally more pro-
state elections in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s
business outlook than others, although it is also home to
“swadeshi” (self
Trinamool Congress survived a historic BJP surge to win
-sufficiency) sentiments. The party
reelection as the state assembly’s majority party. Uttar
emerged as the only national-level competitor for the Indian
Pradesh, considered an electoral bellwether with more than
National Congress after 1998. The NDA-leading BJP won
200 million citizens, was among five states holding
303 Lok Sabha seats with 38% of the popular vote in 2019.
elections in early 2022. These were widely previewed as a
Indian National Congress (INC) is generally regarded as a
referendum on the central government’s performance, and
populist, center-left party, although a Congress-led
they brought a second sweeping win for the BJP, which
government presided over significant economic
took two-thirds of Uttar Pradesh’s assembly seats (with
liberalization in the early 1990s. Rajiv Gandhi’s widow,
41% of the vote) under Chief Minster Yogi Adityanath, a
Sonia, is UPA chairwoman and their son, Rahul, served as
Hindutva firebrand. Later in 2022, the Congress Party lost
party president from 2017 to 2022; both offered to resign
control of Punjab to another BJP adversary—the decade-old
following historic electoral defeats in 2014 and 2019. The
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which also runs the National
INC won 52 Lok Sabha seats with 20% of the 2019 vote.
Capitol Territory of Delhi—but managed to unseat a BJP
government in Himachal Pradesh. In May 2023, Congress
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is a Tamil Nadu-
ousted another incumbent BJP government, this time in
based party led by former Chennai mayor M.K. Stalin.
Karnataka, in India’s relatively prosperous south.
Social democratic with a mostly ethnic Tamil constituency,
the UPA member won 23 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
The nationally ruling BJP is now in power in 10 Indian
states, with NDA-allied chief ministers seated in another 5.
All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC), a
The Congress Party controls four state governments; its
professedly secular party, wins its support in West Bengal,
UPA allies lead three others. Six states are run by parties
where party leader Mamata Banerjee is also chief minister.
independent of either national coalition. Steadily
The TMC, a UPA member from 2004 to 2012 and now
broadening its state assembly presence in recent years—
unaffiliated, won 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
which directly translates to increased presence in the Rajya
YSR Congress (YSRCP) was founded in 2011 by
Sabha—the BJP now accounts for more than one-third of
Jaganmohan Reddy, son of a former Andhra Pradesh chief
the country’s state legislators, as compared to under one-
minister, after a split with the Congress Party. It dominates
fifth for the declining Congress.
the state assembly and won 22 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
K. Alan Kronstadt, Specialist in South Asian Affairs
Shiv Sena is a Hindu nationalist, ethnic Marathi party
based in Maharashtra that had long aligned itself with the
IF10298
BJP at the national level, but split away in 2019. The party
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India’s Domestic Political Setting


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https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF10298 · VERSION 22 · UPDATED

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