BJP’s foundation day: A look at the history and achievements of the party

On Thursday April 6 the Bharatiya Janata Party will commemorate its 42nd foundation day Since its beginnings in the early 1980s the party that is today Indias largest political party in terms of both party membership and representation in parliament has gone a long wayThe party has successfully overcome many setbacks and failures established a solid base in the Indian political landscape and fundamentally altered the longstanding ideological underpinnings of Indias domestic and foreign policiesHere is a look at the partyrsquos history of achievements and failuresThe partyrsquos ideological origins can be dated back to 1951 when the then Congress politician Shyama Prasad Mukherjee broke away from Jawaharlal Nehrursquos leadership to form the Bhartiya Jana Sangh BJSThe party was formed in opposition to the political practices of the Congress party and in collaboration with the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS The BJSs mission was to protect Hindu identity and culture The BJS struggled in its early years after being founded at a time when the Indian National Congress was essentially the face of Indian politics In the 1952 elections the party only won three Lok Sabha seatsMembers of the BJS protested vehemently against the Congress government in 1975 when the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency throughout the nation The BJS joined forces with a number of other parties to become the Janata Party after the Emergency was liftedThe Janata Party secured a majority in the 1977 general elections forming the government at the center with Morarji Desai as prime ministerAlso read BJP foundation day Know how the party was formedDesai was forced to resign in 1980 due to the political disagreements within the party and fresh elections were held The Janata Party dissolved soon after and a large number of its members who were previously members of BJS formed the BJPWith Gandhian socialism as its ideological cornerstone the BJP maintained an accommodating stance under the party chief Atal Bihari Vajpayee However the BJP made changes to its political tenets following the partys crushing setback in the 1984 elections During 1980s India was witnessing a time of severe HinduMuslim clashes in the country and so the party found an ideal dispute to uphold as its political mandate in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement initiated by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad VHPOn December 6 1992 the BJP along with the VHP organised a mass rally in Uttar Pradesh and demolished the 16th century mosque Babri Masjid in Ayodhya The incident sparked large scale communal riots and has been a huge trigger for communal polarisation both in the state and the countryWhen the general elections were held in 2014 the BJP made a sweeping victory upholding Narendra Modirsquos image as its prime ministerial candidate and the successes he achieved in Gujarat as its chief ministerIn 2019 general elections again Narendra Modi and his ruling BJP swept back to power The party won 303 seats in the Lok Sabha the lower house of Indias parliament bettering the 282 seats they won in 2014 a performance that not many thought was possibleAt present the stronghold maintained by the party in central and state governments is largely derived from the popularity of the prime minister also referred to as the lsquoModi waversquo