Lably
Skip to content

National Democratic Alliance

Indian political alliance led by the BJP

  • 19 min read
  • 15 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and Government of India

Lab · Class 6–11How India Is Governed

Its first chairman was then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who served from 1998 until 2004. L. K. Advani, the former Deputy Prime Minister, took over as chairman in 2004 and served until 2014. Amit Shah has been the chairman since 2014.

The NDA controlled a majority in the Indian Parliament from 1998 to 2004. The alliance returned to power in the 2014 general elections with a combined vote share of 38.5%. BJP leader, Narendra Modi, was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014, his party having won 282 of the 520 seats in the lower house. In the 2019 general election, the alliance further increased its tally to 353 seats with a combined vote share of 45.43%. The alliance lost 60 seats in the 2024 general election, but retained sufficient seats to form a coalition government. On 7 June 2024, Modi confirmed the support of 293 MPs to President Droupadi Murmu; he was then asked by her to form a government. This marked Modi's third term as Prime Minister and his first time heading a coalition government, with the Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh and Janata Dal (United) of Bihar emerging as two main allies.

History

The NDA was formed in May 1998 as a coalition to contest the general elections. The main aim of the NDA was to form an anti-Indian National Congress coalition. It was led by the BJP, and included several regional parties, including the Samata Party and the AIADMK, as well as Shiv Sena, but Shiv Sena broke away from the alliance in 2019 to join the Maha Vikas Aghadi with Congress and the NCP. Samata Party also broke away from the alliance in 2003 after formation of Janta Dal (United). The Shiv Sena was the only member which shared the Hindutva ideology of the BJP.

After the election, it was able to muster a slim majority with outside support from the Telugu Desam Party, allowing Atal Bihari Vajpayee to return as prime minister.

The government collapsed within a year because J. Jayalalithaa's AIADMK withdrew its support. After the entry of a few more regional parties, the NDA proceeded to win the 1999 elections with a larger majority. Vajpayee became Prime Minister for a third time, and this time served a full five-year term.

The NDA then called elections in early 2004, six months ahead of schedule. Its campaign was based around the slogan of "India Shining" which attempted to depict the NDA government as responsible for a rapid economic transformation of the country. However, the NDA suffered a defeat, winning only a 186 seats in the lower house, the Lok Sabha, compared to 222 of the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress. Manmohan Singh thus succeeded Vajpayee as prime minister, serving for ten years 2004–14. Commentators have argued that the NDA's defeat was due to a failure to reach out to the rural masses. The political situation, however, changed again with the rise of NDA-aligned Gujarati Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, who went on to become India's Prime Minister following the NDA's success in the election of 2014.

Sign in to keep reading

14 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in India

MuslimsAdherents of IslamPresidencies and provinces of British India1612–1947 British directly-ruled administrative divisions in IndiaStates and union territories of IndiaIndia is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 sSikhsReligious groupInternational Alphabet of Sanskrit TransliterationTransliteration scheme for Indic scriptsPrime Minister of IndiaHead of government