BJP - 35 years of journey

The BJP, the largest political party in India and the party with 10 crore members, is celebrating its foundation day on Monday. The BJP is the only other party in India that formed a government at the Centre on its own. Currently, the party has its government in most states, many on its own and a few in alliance with friends. This right of the centre, nationalist party stood out for its pro-Hindu stance. The party was founded on April 6 in 1980. But, it has its roots in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1950 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.  Jan Sangh made a humble beginning in the 1952 elections, but grew steadily. In 1977, bowing to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narain's call, the party merged with other opposition parties to form the Janata Party. The Janata Party rode to power on a massive anti-Indira wave, but soon lost steam due to internal squabbles. Finally, the Jana Sangh faction came out of it and formed the BJP on April 6, 1989. Under the leadership of redoubtable Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, the party grew steadily. However, its darkest period was in 1984, when it was reduced to just two seats and all the stalwarts including Vajpayee bit the dust. However, the party bounced back by 1989 to win 85 seats. It played a pivotal role in the formation for the Viswanath Pratap Singh government, by providing outside support. The Ayodhya movement catapulted the BJP into the big league.In 1991 everybody thought it would be The BJP government leading India. But the death of Rajeev Gandhi after the first round of polling helped the Congress to become the largest single party, with the BJP winning a handsome 120   In 1996  BJP became the largest single party and the 13-day minority government of Vajpayee was formed. In the 1998 elections, the BJP formed another minority government that ran for 18 months. this period is remembered for the Pokhran nuclear blasts, Lahore Bus Yatra and Kargil War. But when ADMK withdrew support BJP fell short of Minimum Majority and an election was called for again . In 1999, the BJP came to power with more seats and more parties joining its coalition. After the Vajpayee government as voted out in 2004, the party remained in the opposition for ten long years. It is after the advent of Narendra Modi, the party's fortunes are again on the upswing and the party is now in power with a complete majority on its own. the party now rules most of the North and Western India. It is growing in strength in the eastern India, including Bengal and Assam. South, however, remains its Achilles' heal.