The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; "Indian People's Party") is one of the largest political parties in India. In the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004) it was the single largest party with 182 (out of 545) members. It is the successor party of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS; "Indian Peoples Alliance", often referred to as just the Jan Sangh), which merged itself into the Janata Party in 1977. The BJP was formed as a separate party in 1980 after internal differences in the Janata Party resulted in the collapse of its government in 1979. BJP is part of the informal community of Hindu nationalist organisations called Sangh Parivar. The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house of Parliament of India. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bharatiya Jana Sangh is the old name of Bharatiya Janata Party of India. ... The Janata Party was a Indian political party, formed in 1977 through the fusion of four major opposition parties, namely the Bharatiya Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Organisation), Bharatiya Jan Sangh and the Socialist Party. ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ... The Sangh Parivar is a loose family of organisations, including political parties, which promote the ideology of Hindutva. ...

Founder (of BJS): Syama Prasad Mookerjee (1901-1953) Syama Prasad Mookerjee (also spelled as Shyama Prasad Mukherjee) (born July 6, 1901) is founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. ... 1901 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Lok Sabha elections 2004, click for full image

Presidents: In May 2004 I was in India and I dont know why I took a pic of the BJP manifesto using (of all things) my webcam! Later I cropped the BJP logo out of the manifesto (on hindsight I think the entire manifesto should have made a better image). ... Download high resolution version (693x922, 64 KB)BJP elections 2004 File links The following pages link to this file: Bharatiya Janata Party Indian general elections, 2004 Categories: GFDL images ... Download high resolution version (693x922, 64 KB)BJP elections 2004 File links The following pages link to this file: Bharatiya Janata Party Indian general elections, 2004 Categories: GFDL images ... The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house of Parliament of India. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• Lal Krishna Advani - 2004-(2007)
• Venkaiah Naidu - 2002-2004
• Jana Krishnamurthy - 2001-2002
• Bangaru Laxman - 2000-2001
• Kushabhau Thakre - 1998-2000
• Lal Krishna Advani - 1993-1998
• Murli Manohar Joshi - 1991-1993
• Lal Krishna Advani - 1986-1991
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee - 1980-1986

It is the dominant component of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). As the largest party in opposition former party president and Deputy Prime Minister in the previous government Lal Krishna Advani is the leader of the opposition in the 13th Lok Sabha. The party has close ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization. The rise of Mr. Advani, a product of the RSS cadre, post the 2004 elections in which the BJP-led NDA lost power, is seen as indicative of the return of a hardline RSS policy stance in constrast to the more moderate Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the outgoing prime minister in 2004. Economically, the party's policies of late have been reformist and fiscally conservative though earlier there was a strong flair of protectionism. Apart from economics, key planks have been and remain in varying degrees the cultivation of Hindutva, induction of a uniform civil code, development of the Indian nuclear programme and the contentious reconstruction of temples destroyed during the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's reign in place of the mosques that now inhabit their places. In 1998, the BJP government gave the go-ahead for the Indian nuclear tests. Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born November 8, 1927/1929, Karachi) is an Indian politician. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Categories: Indian politicians | Politics stubs ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born November 8, 1927/1929, Karachi) is an Indian politician. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Murli Manohar Joshi was the Union Human Resources Development minister of India in the NDA government. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born November 8, 1927/1929, Karachi) is an Indian politician. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Atal Bihari Vajpayee (often wrongly spelt Behari; अटल िबहारी वाजपेयी in Sanskrit) (born December 25, 1924) was the Prime Minister of India in 1996 and again from 1998 until May 19, 2004. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a coalition in India. ... Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born November 8, 1927/1929, Karachi) is an Indian politician. ... The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest opposition party in a Westminster System of parliamentary government. ... The Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the lower house of Parliament of India. ... The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a Hindu nationalist movement which bases itself on the principles of Hindutva. ... Hindutva (Hinduness, a word coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his 1923 pamphlet entitled Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? ) is used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. ... Uniform civil code is a term originating from the concept of a civil law code. ... Abu Muzaffar Muhiuddin Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (November 3, 1618 – March 3, 1707), usually known as Aurangzeb, but also sometimes as Alamgir I, was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1658 until 1707. ...

Officially, the BJP considers itself to be a secular party and defines Hindutva not in terms of religion but as Indian-ness. According to the party this is in consonance with the root meaning of the word Hindu. Nevertheless, a number of third-party commentators describe the party's politics and policies as Hindu Nationalist. The party has also throughout its history tried to highlight the achievements and political ideology of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the right wing freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar during the Indian independence movement. This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a Hindu nationalist movement which bases itself on the principles of Hindutva. ... Veer Savarkar on a stamp issued by Government of India Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (May 28, 1883-1966), (Devanagari:विनायक दामॊदर सावरकर) sometimes called Veer Savarkar (वीर सावरकर - Brave Savarkar), was an Indian Freedom fighter, and a Hindu nationalist leader. ... The Indian independence movement was a series of steps taken in the Indian subcontinent for independence from British colonial rule, beginning with the Rebellion of 1857. ...

BJP election poster 2004 in Bengali.

BJP Mahila Morcha poster

The party has been part of several instances of communal violence in the previous two decades. In particular, the party's role in the Babrij Masjid demolition of December 6, 1992 and subsequent riots, and the Gujarat riots of 2002 stand out. In the Gujarat riots of 2002, Narendra Modi, the BJP Chief Minister of Gujarat and a RSS man, in particular, came under severe censure domestically and internationally for his government's role in the matter. He has been indicted by many human-rights organizations for allowing angry Hindu mobs to pillage Muslim shops and homes while the state's law enforcement authorities looked on. An attempt to take disciplinary action against him by the moderate Mr. Vajpayee and his supporters, was forestalled by Mr. Advani and hardline members of the party. He has so far never been indicted or charge sheeted by a legal entity. Download high resolution version (386x631, 43 KB)BJP election poster in Durgapur, West Bengal, ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. ... Download high resolution version (386x631, 43 KB)BJP election poster in Durgapur, West Bengal, ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the Bengali language. ... Download high resolution version (645x999, 163 KB)BJP Mahila Morcha poster. ... Download high resolution version (645x999, 163 KB)BJP Mahila Morcha poster. ... A view of the Babri Mosque, pre-1992. ... 2002 Gujarat violence refers to a series of riots and other incidents of mob violence that occurred in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002. ... Narendra Damodardas Modi (born September 17, 1950, Gujarat, India) is the chief minister of the state of Gujarat in India since October 7, 2001. ... A Chief Minister is the elected Head of Government of a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British overseas territory that has attained self-government. ... Gujarat (ગુજરાત in Gujarati) is the most industrialized state in India after Maharashtra and is located in western India, bordered by Pakistan to the northwest and Rajasthan to the north. ...

Following the 2004 elections, NDA (the BJP-led governing coalition) was confronted with its failure to secure sufficient seats to form a government. There were significant setbacks in rural states, but the BJP also had major reversals in key urban centres including Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi and Chennai. This electoral shock was due to its perceived inability to extend the benefits of strong economic growth to a broader range of the populace. Disaffection was particularly evident amongst the rural electorate, suffering under the pressures of drought, a dearth of infrastructure investment, and relative impoverishment. The post-godhra riots in Gujarat were also seen as a factor. The mantle of power has thus passed to the alliance headed by the United Progressive Alliance. Furthermore, since the election there has been a fair degree of internal politics, previously unknown in party famed for its discpline, as the BJP tries and re-organizes itself and its policies in anticipation of future elections. Legislative elections were held in India, the worlds largest democracy, in four phases between April 20 and May 10, 2004. ... The Gateway of India is the citys most recognisable landmark, visited by thousands daily. ... This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ... Delhi (दिल्ली or Dillī in Hindi and Bengali and دیلی in Urdu) is a term that refers to either the State of Delhi or the National Capital Territory (NCT) of the Republic of India. ... Chennai (சென்னை in Tamil), formerly known as Madras, is a city on the east coast of Southern India. ... United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is the present ruling coalition of political parties in India. ...

External link

• Official site (http://bjp.org)
• BJP vis-à-vis Hindu Resurgence by Dr. Koenraad Elst (http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/books/bjp/index.html) Online book