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Politics of India
India is the
largest democracy in the world. For most of its democratic history,
the federal government has been led by the Indian National Congress
(INC). State politics have been dominated by several national
parties including the INC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
Communist Party of India (CPI), and various regional parties. From
1950 to 1990, barring two brief periods, the INC enjoyed a
parliamentary majority. The INC was out of power between 1977 and
1980, when the Janata Party won the election owing to public
discontent with the "Emergency" declared by the then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi. In 1989, a Janata Dal-led National Front coalition in
alliance with the Left Front coalition won the elections but managed
to stay in power for only two years.
The years 1996–1998 were a period of turmoil in the federal
government with several short-lived alliances holding sway. The BJP
formed a government briefly in 1996, followed by the United Front
coalition. In 1998, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance
(NDA) with several regional parties and became the first
non-Congress government to complete a full five-year term. In the
2004 Indian elections, the INC won the largest number of Lok Sabha
seats and formed a government with a coalition called the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA), supported by various left-leaning
parties and members opposed to the BJP
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