India’s Domestic Political Setting

India’s Domestic Political Setting

July 9, 2014
India’s Domestic Political Setting
Overview

India, the world’s most populous democracy, is, according
BJP’s outright majority victory—remains an important
to its Constitution, a “sovereign, socialist, secular,
variable in Indian politics. Such parties now hold more than
democratic republic” where the bulk of executive power
200 seats in parliament. Some 464 parties participated in
rests with the prime minister and his Council of Ministers
the 2014 national election and 35 of those won
(the Indian president is a ceremonial chief of state with
representation. The 8 parties listed below account for 67%
limited executive powers). Since its 1947 independence,
of the total vote and 85% of Lok Sabha seats (see Figure 1).
most of India’s 14 prime ministers have come from the
Figure 1. Major Party Representation in the Lok Sabha
country’s Hindi-speaking northern regions and all but three
(543 Total Seats + 2 Appointed)
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.
Elections to seat India’s 16th Lok Sabha were held in April-
May 2014, when the main opposition Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP or “Indian Peoples Party”) won a historic
victory under then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP became the first party to attain a parliamentary

majority since 1984. Prime Minister Modi, a self-avowed
Source: Election Commission of India.
Hindu nationalist who arose from humble social
circumstances, ran a campaign emphasizing economic
The BJP’s governance agenda can be impeded in the Rajya
development and good governance, while largely omitting
Sabha, where the Congress Party holds a plurality of seats
the sometimes strident Hindu majoritarian rhetoric he has
and can align with others to block certain legislation (see
issued in the past. The BJP, under then-Prime Minister Atal
Figure 2).
Bihari Vajpayee, had led a National Democratic Alliance
Figure 2. Major Party Representation in the Rajya
(NDA) coalition in power from 1999-2004.
Sabha (233 Total Seats + 12 Appointed)
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
Mohandas Gandhi), and her son, Rajiv, also served as prime
minister; both were assassinated in office. The party’s
assumed prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Rajiv’s son
Rahul, oversaw the party’s failure to win even the 10% of
seats required to officially lead the Lok Sabha opposition.
The BJP and Congress Party are India’s only truly national
parties; as in the previous national election, they together
won roughly half of all votes cast in 2014. The influence of

regional and caste-based parties—although blunted by the
Source: Election Commission of India.
www.crs.gov | 7-5700

India’s Domestic Political Setting
Key Government Officials
All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), a professedly
secular party, wins its support in West Bengal, where party
Prime Minister Narendra Modi—a longtime member of
leader Mamata Banerjee is also chief minister. The TMC
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or “National
was a member of the Congress-led UPA from 2004-2012. It
Volunteer Organization”), a militant Hindu and social
won 34 Lok Sabha seats (6%) with 3.8% of the 2014 vote.
service group—was chief minister of the western state of
Gujarat since 2001 before becoming India’s first-ever
Biju Janata Dal (BJD), an electoral ally of the BJP in the
lower-caste prime minster. He also chairs the Planning
recent past, but also professedly secular in outlook,
Commission and heads the Department of Atomic Energy.
dominated the vote in the Odisha state under the leadership
of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The BJD won 20 Lok
Home Minister Rajnath Singh was BJP president during
Sabha seats (4%) with 1.7% of the 2014 vote.
the 2014 campaign and has served both as Chief Minister of
Uttar Pradesh and as Minister of Agriculture in the previous
Shiv Sena is a vociferously Hindu nationalist, ethnic
BJP-led government.
Marathi party based in Maharashtra that has long aligned
itself with the BJP at the national level. It won 18 Lok
External Affairs Minister and Overseas Indian Affairs
Sabha seats (3%) with 1.9% of the 2014 vote.
Minister Sushma Swaraj, a BJP stalwart from Harayana,
has won seven parliamentary elections and was Leader of
Telugu Desam Party (TDP), created to serve the Telugu-
the Opposition in the 15th Lok Sabha.
speakers of Andhra Pradesh, dominated 2014’s state-level
election, making its leader, N. Chandrababu Naidu, chief
Finance Minister, Defense Minister, and Corporate Affairs
minister of “rump” Andhra Pradesh, which was bifurcated
Minister Arun Jaitley, an eminent corporate lawyer from
to create the new state of Telangana in June 2014. TDP won
Punjab and former BJP national spokesman, was Minister
16 Lok Sabha seats (3%) with 2.5% of the 2014 vote.
of Law and Justice in the previous BJP-led government.
Left Front, a coalition of four communist parties led by the
National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval is a veteran
Communist Party of India–Marxist, finds most of its
intelligence officer from Kerala who served as Director of
votebank in West Bengal and Kerala. A non-coalition UPA
the Intelligence Bureau from 2004-2005.
supporter from 2004-2008, the Left Front has suffered three
major electoral setbacks since 2009. This coalition won 10
Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan, a BJP
Lok Sabha seats (2%) with 3.4% of the 2014 vote.
loyalist from Madhya Pradesh, is that body’s longest-
serving female member, having won eight elections.
Others: Three major regional parties—the Janata Dal
(United) of Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party and
President Pranab Mukherjee, India’s chief of state, is a
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—were almost completely
Congress Party stalwart who successively served as
submerged by the “Modi wave” in 2014, winning only
Minister of Defense, External Affairs, and Finance in the
three, five, and zero Lok Sabha seats, respectively. The
Manmohan Singh government.
BSP did not win a single seat despite garnering about 23
million votes, fully 4.1% of the total.
Leading Parties
India’s Federal System
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), born as the political wing
of the RSS, advocates Hindu nationalism (“Hindutva”) and
The Indian Constitution divides legislative powers into a
is 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 (52%) 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
More than half of all Indians live in only six states—Uttar
Congress Party-led government did preside over significant
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu,
economic liberalization in the early 1990s. Rajiv Gandhi’s
and Madhya Pradesh. Of these, only the last has a BJP
widow, Sonia, is party president and their son, Rahul,
government. Maharashtra has a Congress Party chief
serves as party vice president. Both offered to resign in the
minister and the others are run by state-based parties. The
wake of 2014’s historic electoral defeat. The party won 44
Congress Party includes 12 current chief ministers. The BJP
Lok Sabha seats (8%) with 19.1% of the 2014 vote.
is in power in five states and its NDA allies run another
four. The Congress Party accounts for 27% of all of the
All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is a
country’s state legislators, as compared to 21% for the BJP.
Tamil Nadu-based party led by state Chief Minister
Sources: Election Commission of India, Indian government
Jayalalithaa. It is populist with a mostly ethnic Tamil
agencies, and party websites.
constituency. An NDA member, the AIADMK won 37 Lok
Sabha seats (7%) with 3.3% of the 2014 vote.
K. Alan Kronstadt, akronstadt@crs.loc.gov, 7-5415. IF00037
www.crs.gov | 7-5700

Document Outline

Overview

Key Government Officials

Leading Parties

India’s Federal System