Page 4 - LN- INDIAN POLITICS TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS

17.The Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi got an

absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections held in May 2014 and after nearly 30

years in Indian politics, a strong government with an absolute majority was

established at the Centre.

18.Though called NDA III, the BJP-led coalition of 2014 was largely different its

predecessor coalition governments. Where the previous coalitions were led by one

of the national parties, the NDA III coalition was not only steered by a national

party, i.e., BJP it was also dominated by BJP with an absolute majority of its own

in Lok Sabha. It was also called a ‘surplus majority coalition’. In that sense a major

transformation could be seen in the nature of coalition politics which could be seen

from one party led coalition to one party dominated coalition.

19.The 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the 17th since independence, once again brought

back BJP led NDA [NDA IV] to the centre of power by winning more than 350

seats out of 543. The BJP on its own won 303 seats in Lok Sabha, the biggest

number any single party has won in the lower house since 1985 when Congress

swept the elections in the aftermath of Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Based

on the tumultuous success of the BJP in 2019, Social Scientists have started

equating the contemporary party system with the ‘BJP System’ where an era of

one-party dominance, like the ‘Congress System’ has once again started appearing

on the democratic politics of India.

20.A major change in Indian politics after 2014 is the shift from caste and religion

based politics to development and governance oriented politics. With its pre-

intended goal Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, the NDA III Government started several
socio-economic welfare schemes to make development and governance accessible

to the masses such as – Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,
Jan-Dhan Yojana,