The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980 and has given national leaders like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and incumbent Narendra Modi.
Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) marked the 47th anniversary of India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The party has grown by leaps and bounds since it was founded in 1980 and today is the largest political organization in the world with 110 million members,” said Krishna Reddy Anugula, President of OFBJP-USA.
Commending work of the Modi administration, Anugula said that the party’s motto “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” has worked well for India.
“Many states are turning of BJP. BJP has been expanding from east to west and north to south with significant presence in almost all state,” Reddy said in a news media statement. “Currently BJP and its allies rule more [than] 60 percent of the country and almost 2/3 of the Indian population. It is just a matter of time before BJP rules almost all the states in India.”
The party traces genesis from the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) that was formed in 1977 by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee. BJS merged into the Janata Party in 1977, but the internal differences in Janata Party led to the formation of Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. The Janata Party finally merged with the BJP in 2013.
The BJP has produced a number of national leaders but two among them, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and incumbent Narendra Modi, have been the most popular. Reportedly, both Vajpayee and Modi have had a hate-love relationship. Vajpayee once criticized Modi over his handling of Gujarat riots in 2002. But over the years, Modi’s stature grew nationally as he promoted himself into a formidable brand within the party.
Since inception in 1980, BJP has had 10 presidents with Lal Krishna Advani and Rajnath Singh leading three times and two times, respectively. The current president of the party is Amit Shah, a close confidant of Prime Minister Modi.
Modi is expected to visit the US later this year.