Major Political Parties In India

India has a multi-party political system, among which there are two major parties Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) playing the main role in elections.

There are seven national parties while 24 state-recognized parties and 2044 registered unrecognized parties.

India National Congress (INC) is the oldest party and has ruled the country for almost 60 years Its roots date back to the Indian freedom struggle so they have long experience of being in politics. It is led by the Nehru-Gandhi family.

The party leader was Italy-born Sonia Gandhi (spouse of Late charismatic leader Rajiv Gandhi). The party saw the biggest loss in the general election in 2014, she stepped down as the Congress president in December 2017. While the new leader Rahul Gandhi and his team of young leaders have yet to show signs of improvement.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forms the other major political parties in India. It has become the country’s largest political party, and its policy has historically reflected Hindu-nationalist positions.

The BJP’s origin lies in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed in 1951. A BJP-led coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had formed the NDA government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Long time Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led it to a landslide victory in the 2014 general election. Since then Modi is leading the NDA government which is still going powerful. The ruling BJP is now the largest political party in the world with a total membership of 8.80 crores.

While other national parties of India are the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI-M, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Apart from these national parties, we have regional parties which are dominant in the respective states.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, AITC in West Bengal, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu, SP in Uttar Pradesh, TDP in Andhra Pradesh/Telengana, Shiv Sens in Maharashtra, All India Forward Block (AIFB) in West Bengal, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Telangana, All India N.R. Congress (AINRC) in Puducherry, DMK in Tamil Nadu, and BJD in Orissa, and various others.

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