IN a little over forty years of its existence, the Bharatiya Janata Party has become the world’s largest political party and it continues to go from strength to strength. There is much internal deliberation and planning that have aided the growth of this 180-million-member organisation in Indian politics.
The architect of the new BJP is, undisputedly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has transformed it over the decades. Modi’s experiments with traditional methods of party-building, his keen eye for detail and different innovative methodologies have helped the party expand.
Poll-winning machine
Overcoming the limitations of what used to be a cadre-based party, PM Modi’s unique Indian model has eventually transformed the BJP into the electionwinning machine that it is today. Sent to Gujarat to replace an ailing Keshubhai Patel as the Chief Minister in 2001, Modi had proved his organisational and administrative skills when he became the Prime Minister in 2014.
Since then, he has turned the BJP into an invincible election-winning machine, expanding its support base to all nooks and corners of the country. In the process, PM Modi has not only emerged as the architect of the new BJP, but has also authored the story of New India’s growth and inclusive development.
Ended the collation era
Under Modi, the BJP ended a three-decade-long era of coalition governments in 2014, by crossing the majority mark on its own. In 2019 elections, it added 21 more seats to its tally in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Besides, the BJP’s expansion beyond its traditional support base of Central India is nothing short of a miracle.
The party had virtually no presence in the northeast region until a few years back. In 2016, it broke the 15-year rule of the Congress in Assam with a landslide victory. In the neighbouring Tripura, the following year, the BJP defeated the CPI-M, which had ruled the state for a quarter of a century. In 2018, it joined the governments in Meghalaya and Nagaland as ‘junior’ partner. The BJP’s winning streak continued in 2019 in Arunachal Pradesh. It retained Assam in 2021. Today it rules in all the eight states of the region, on its own or with partners.
Winning spree in UP
Under Modi, the BJP recaptured India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and continued its winning spree in 2022 elections. This year, the party continued its victory march in all the state Assembly elections and is poised to win the remaining six state Assembly elections due later in the year.
It is close to a year before the next General Elections and the party is not only confident of winning a successive third term, but also acquire twothirds majority in Parliament. Understandably, under Narendra Modi, the sky is the limit for the BJP as it celebrated its foundation day on April 6.
