The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or 'Indian People's Party,' is a major, right-wing political party in India, considered one of the country's two principal national parties alongside the Indian National Congress. It is the largest political party in the world by claimed membership numbers. The party was formally established in 1980 as the successor to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). The BJS was founded in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to oppose the policies of the Indian National Congress and promote Hindu nationalism.
The core ideology of the BJP is Hindutva, or cultural nationalism, which seeks to define Indian culture in terms of Hindu values. The party has close ideological and organizational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. The BJP's mechanism for governance advocates for a strong national defense, a free-market economy, and social conservatism.
Since returning to power in 2014 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP-led government has pursued several long-standing ideological goals. Key actions include the revocation of the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on August 5, 2019, and the introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA). The party also achieved its long-term goal of building a temple at the Ayodhya site. While the BJP secured a clear majority in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it fell short of a majority on its own in the 2024 elections, requiring it to rely on its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form the government.