National Democratic Alliance
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is an Indian political alliance. It made up of center-right and right-wing political parties and led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998. It currently controls the Indian union government as well as the government of 18 Indian states.
Its first chairman was Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. L. K. Advani, the former Deputy Prime Minister, took over as chairman in 2004 and served until 2014. Afetr that, Amit Shah has been the chairman since 2014. The coalition ruled from 1998 to 2004. The alliance returned to power in the 2014 general elections with a combined vote share of 38.5%. Its leader, Narendra Modi, was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014. In the 2019 general election, the alliance further increased its tally to 353 seats with combined vote share of 45.43%.
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 a anti-Congress coalition. It was led by the BJP, and included several regional parties, including the Samta Party and the AIADMK, as well as Shiv Sena, 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 the 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 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. It responsible for a rapid economic transformation of the country. However, the NDA suffered a defeat. They won with only a 186 seats in the Lok Sabha, compared to the 222 of the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress, with Manmohan Singh. Singh has succeeded Vajpayee as prime minister. Commentators have argued that the NDA's defeat was due to a failure to reach out to the rural masses.
Structure
The National Democratic Alliance does not have a formal governing structure such as an executive board or politburo. It has been up to the leaders of the individual parties to make decisions on issues such as sharing of seats in elections, allocation of ministries and the issues that are raised in Parliament. Given the varied ideologies among the parties, there have been many cases of disagreement and split voting among the allies.
Owing to ill health, George Fernandes, who was the NDA convener until 2008, was discharged of his responsibility. He replaced by Sharad Yadav, the then national president of the JD(U) party. On 16 June 2013, the JD(U) left the coalition and Sharad Yadav resigned from the role of the NDA convener. Then the CM of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu was made the NDA convener.
On 27 July 2017 JD(U) with the help of BJP formed the government in Bihar. Later, on 19 August 2017 JD(U) formally rejoined the NDA after 4 years.
Strength in parliament
Current governments
As of March 2020, the BJP holds a majority of Legislative Assembly in 12 states - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In Haryana, BJP shares power as the senior partner (Chief Minister of BJP) with Jannayak Janta Party.
References
1998 establishments in India
Political parties in India