The BJP emerged as a significant force in the 1989 general election, winning 88 seats. A central campaign issue was the demand that a Hindu temple be constructed on the site of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, which many Hindus believe was earlier the site of a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu god-king Ram. In the 1991 election the BJP established itself as the main national opposition and won power in four states. In December 1992 Sangh Parivar activists demolished the Babri mosque, triggering communal riots that left thousands dead. In the 1993 state elections the BJP suffered setbacks and won just one state administration, but in the 1996 general election it won 160 seats in the Lok Sabha.

In May 1996 the BJP formed its first national government, led by Mr Vajpayee, which lasted just 13 days. The BJP re-emerged as the power broker in 1998, when it won 182 seats in the general election and cobbled together a coalition of 13 parties under Mr Vajpayee’s leadership. The coalition proved unwieldy, collapsing in April 1999. However, Mr Vajpayee has proved himself able to rally parties of disparate political persuasions to form a government. Another election in September-October 1999 returned a BJP-led coalition of 20 partners to power. Members of the new coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, campaigned under a common platform and won 302 seats. Despite the increased majority, however, the range of parties involved in government has left the alliance vulnerable to the whims of smaller regional parties. For instance, when the Andhra Pradesh-based Telugu Desam Party (TDP) withdrew its support for the government in the vote on the BJP’s performance in riot-torn Gujarat in 2002, the BJP hurriedly formed an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh, despite the failure of a previous alliance with that party.

As leader of the BJP’s moderate wing, Mr Vajpayee has sought to rein in the party’s more extreme Hindu nationalist members, particularly in relation to questions of economic reform. But the party’s reformist credentials have proved increasingly shaky in the face of conflicting demands from coalition members and resistance from the BJP’s nationalist wing. The close relations the party has cultivated with leading industrialists have also resulted in increased protection for some industries from foreign competition. Mr Vajpayee made efforts to broaden the appeal of a party dominated by high-caste Hindu northerners beyond its traditional vote bank, appointing a low-caste southerner, Bangaru Laxman, as BJP president—the first Dalit to hold a senior post in the party. However, Mr Laxman was forced to resign in March 2001 after he was caught on film accepting a bribe from journalists posing as defence contractors.

Congress led the campaign for independence, and has remained a powerful force in Indian politics, transcending religious, ethnic and caste divisions. However, it is also a party tightly focused on its heritage: members of the Nehru-Gandhi family have led the party throughout most of its history. India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, who died within a year of taking office. The party then turned to Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, who led it until her assassination in 1984 when her son, Rajiv, took over as party leader. Rajiv was assassinated in 1991, and Congress is now led by his widow, Sonia.

The decline of Congress began when Mrs Gandhi declared a state of emergency. Her opponents combined to form the Janata Party, which won the 1977 election. In 1980 Mrs Ghandi brought down the Janata government and returned to power. Her son, Rajiv, came to power in 1984 with the largest majority ever and the aim of liberalising and modernising government, but he was soon mired in a corruption scandal and lost the 1989 election. He too managed to split and finally bring down the Janata Dal government that followed him, but he was killed before the 1991 general election. Although falling just short of majority, Congress formed a government after the election and, under the spur of a payments crisis, carried out considerable economic liberalisation. That did not, however, save it from defeat in the 1996 election.

As effort after effort to form a national alternative failed, the electorate turned to regional and caste-based parties. Following Congress’s poor performance in the 1998 general election, Rajiv Ghandi’s Italian-born widow, Sonia, gave in to repeated requests and took over as party leader. However, her foreign birth has prompted criticism in parts of Congress as well as by the BJP. Three Congress party members were expelled from the party for challenging Mrs Gandhi’s credentials for the leadership; they included a powerful senior figure, Sharad Pawar, who went on to establish the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the electorally significant state of Maharashtra—where Congress and the NCP now make up a coalition government.

Congress has performed strongly in recent state elections, benefiting from an anti-incumbency trend. However, as the electorate becomes more sophisticated, particularly in urban areas, the party’s dependence on the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is an increasing hindrance. In rural areas, on the other hand, the dynastic claim still exerts considerable force, and Mrs Gandhi’s charismatic daughter, Priyanka, is widely thought a likely future candidate to lead the party.