From Fringe to Mainstream: The Rise of the BJP in India

In the election of 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party won 240 out of 543 seats, losing the absolute majority it had held in the country's lower house since 2014. Together with its voting bloc, the National Democratic Alliance, it still hold a majority of 293 seats (272 required).

As the following chart shows, the BJP won 303 out of 550 parliamentary seats in India’s Lok Sabha general elections in 2019 and 282 out of 543 parliamentary seats five years before (52 and 56 percent, respectively). In 2024, the BJP was projected to win as many as 399 seats, but fell short majorly.

Opposition parties also banded together in 2024, led by the Indian National Congress, to form a 26-member alliance, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which achieved 234 seats.

Critics decry the BJP as Hindu nationalists and fear that India will become further divided, accusing the incumbent government of having enabled the persecution of minorities, particularly Muslims, under their rule. Supporters meanwhile praise Modi for securing India’s place as a major global economic power.

The rise of the BJP as India’s majority party was an unlikely one. Its predecessor, the right-wing Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) party, gained only marginal support and joined the Janata Party (People’s Party), which won the 1977 elections as a catch-all union opposing the declaration of a state of emergency in the country. After the Janata Party dissolved in 1980, the party was recreated as the BJP and started from the bottom again, gaining followers emphasizing Hindu national pride and hardline politics.