Modest beginnings to formidable force

Established 45 years ago on this day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), today, boasts of being the largest political party by membership, not just in India but also globally. From its modest beginnings, the BJP has morphed into a formidable political force in the country.

The genesis of its foundation lies in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), which was established in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee, a former member of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Cabinet. He parted ways with the Indian National Congress over ideological differences and the handling of Jammu and Kashmir’s integration, and founded the BJS with the support of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to champion a vision of India rooted in cultural unity and Hindutva.

The BJS, under leaders like Mookerjee, Deendayal Upadhyaya, and later Atal Bihari Vajpayee, steadily built a base by addressing issues like the abolition of Article 370, promotion of Hindi, and opposing policies that they perceived as minority appeasement at the expense of national unity. Though it relatively remained a political underdog compared to the dominant Congress, the BJS laid the ideological and organisational groundwork for what would become the BJP.

The turning point came during the imposition of Emergency, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imprisoned opposition leaders, and censored the Press. The BJS joined hands with other parties to withstand what they said was an authoritarian clampdown, with its members courting arrests alongside other activists. After the Emergency ended, the BJS merged with the Janata Party — a coalition that defeated the Congress in the 1977 elections — bringing the first non-Congress government to power. Morarji Desai was appointed the Prime Minister and Vajpayee External Affairs Minister.

However, the Janata Party’s victory was short-lived. By 1980, ideological differences — particularly between the socialist factions and the former Jana Sangh members — fractured the coalition. Unable to tame these widening differences, the former BJS leaders, led by Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, decided to break away and form a new party. On April 6, 1980, the BJP was officially founded in New Delhi. Vajpayee was elected its first president, with Advani as a key architect of its early strategy. The party adopted the lotus as its election symbol, signifying purity and resilience in Indian culture; and saffron as its colour, reflecting sacrifice and unity.

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