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1 1 (May 22, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/govzdo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SCongressional Research Service i Dnoming te lti c a sinet in India's Domestic Political Setting Updated May 22, 2018 Overview India, the world's most populous democracy, is, according to its Constitution, a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic where the bulk of executive power rests with the prime minister and his Council of Ministers (the Indian president is a ceremonial chief of state with limited executive powers). Since its 1947 independence, most of India's 14 prime ministers have come from the country's Hindi-speaking northern regions and all but 3 have been upper-caste Hindus. The 543-seat, Lok Sabha (House of the People) is the locus of national power, with directly elected representatives from each of the country's 29 states and 7 union territories. The president has the power to dissolve this body. A smaller upper house of a maximum 250 seats, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), may review, but not veto, revenue legislation, and has no power over the prime minister or his/her cabinet. Lok Sabha and state legislators are elected to five-year terms. Rajya Sabha legislators are elected by state legislatures to six-year terms; 12 are appointed by the president. Elections to seat India's 16th Lok Sabha were held in April- May 2014, when the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP or Indian Peoples Party) won a historic victory under then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP became the first party to attain a parliamentary majority since 1984. Prime Minister Modi, a self-avowed Hindu nationalist who arose from humble social circumstances, ran a campaign emphasizing economic development and good governance, while largely omitting the sometimes strident Hindu majoritarian rhetoric he has issued in the past. The BJP, under then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had led a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition in power from 1999-2004. The previously incumbent Indian National Congress Party (hereinafter Congress Party) and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition suffered a crushing defeat after ten years in power with Manmohan Singh in the top office. Congress, the party of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, dominated the country's politics from 1947-1977. Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mohandas Gandhi), and her son, Rajiv, also served as prime minister; both were assassinated in office. The party's presumed prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Rajiv's son Rahul, oversaw the party's failure to win even the 10% of seats required to officially lead the Lok Sabha opposition. The BJP and Congress Party are India's only truly national parties; as in the previous national election, they together won roughly half of all votes cast in 2014. The influence of regional and caste-based parties-although blunted by the BJP's outright majority victory-remains an important variable in Indian politics. Such parties now hold more than 200 seats in parliament. Some 464 parties participated in the 2014 national election and 35 of those won seats. The 8 parties listed below account for 67% of the total vote and 85% of Lok Sabha seats (see Figure 1). Figure I. Major Party Representation in the Lok Sabha (543 total seats + 2 appointed) TDP 35 SS 3% BJP 51% BJD 4% Trinamool 6% ¶ AIADMK 7% 1 ~9%j The BJP's governance agenda can be impeded in the Rajya Sabha, where opposition parties can align to block certain legislation (see Figure 2). Figure 2. Major Party Representation in the Rajya Sabha (233 total seats + 12 appointed) All others Trinamoo 5% 5% Samajwadi 5% Key Government Officials Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of the economically dynamic and relatively developed western state of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 before becoming India's first-ever lower-caste prime minster. He is a longtime member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or National Volunteer Organization; see below). Home Minister Rajnath Singh was BJP president during the 2014 campaign and has served both as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as Minister of Agriculture in the previous BJP-led government. https://crsreports.congress.go,

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