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Leveraging Social Media: Narendra Modi’s Successful Prime Ministerial Campaign
Background Note
The roots of the BJP lay in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) founded by an ex-Indian National Congress (INC) leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee (Mookerjee) in the year 1951. In the initial days after its founding, the BJS was widely considered as the political arm of the Hindu nationalist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The main objective of the BJS was to protect the Hindu cultural identity of India and to fight against the secular politics followed by the INC. But in the first general elections of India held in 1952, the BJS won just 3 seats and had an insignificant presence in the Indian parliament. In the year 1953, Mookerjee died of a heart attack while he was in prison for organizing a protest in defiance of government orders.. By the year 1967, the BJS had emerged as a significant political force. It formed a government in several Indian states by partnering with smaller regional parties. |
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The BJS played an active role in the protests against the emergency imposed by the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi. When the emergency was lifted in 1977, the BJS merged itself with several smaller parties and formed the Janata Party. In the general elections conducted after the lifting of emergency in 1977, the Janata Party won with a huge majority and formed the government. The new government was headed by Morarji Desai as the prime minister. However, disagreements on power sharing between the different factions of the party forced Morarji Desai to resign from his position......
