The Bharatiya Janta Party or the BJP is India’s biggest national party and currently rules the country. It was formed in 1980, though its origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951. The BJP has been in power since 2014, with Narendra Modi as India’s prime minister – the longest-serving non-Congress PM.
The BJP is known to be right-wing in its political and economic ideologies. Its ideological fount is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS, and many of its top leaders were youth leaders in the RSS. The BJP, as of March 2024, is in power alone or in alliance in more than 18 of the 28 states in the country.
In the period leading up to the election of 2004, when the Congress was the underdog, and for the entire decade that it was in power, Smt Sonia Gandhi, as Chairperson of the UPA, had a very cordial, mutually respectful relationship with the allies. She was assisted by her Political Secretary, Shri Ahmed Patel, who understood India’s political terrain. That does not seem to be the case today. Whoever becomes PM, the Congress will be at the head of the coalition, should the numbers so dictate. How many senior regional leaders feel comfortable, one on one, with Shri Rahul Gandhi. Whether it is forming the coalition, allocating portfolios, running the show cohesively for the full term, a much higher level of comfort and trust need to be nurtured.