Sanjay Kumar’s Column – How did BJP Gradually Increase Its Support Base? , Sanjay Kumar’s column: How did BJP gradually increase its support base?

Sanjay Kumar, Professor and Political Comments

If we look at today’s BJP, it not only changed its name after independence, but has also made a big change in its social base. Between 1951 and 1977, it was known as Jana Sangh. Then between 1977 and 1980, this Janata Party took place and finally in 1980, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani established it as the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the last decades, the party’s base has increased very fast, due to which the BJP, which has been marginalized for a few decades, has become a full electoral dominated party today. Once upon a time it was called the Brahmin-Baniya Party. But since then, due to the widespread changes in the supporters of the party, now the BJP has now been deeply rooted among the voters of rural, Bahujan, lower and poor sections.

All this was possible because the party also changed its ideology, electoral policy and the methods of governance along with the name. The opposition does not see any break of Hindutva ideology of the current BJP.

The big vote bank and the party’s financial and organizational strength, which gives an idea of ​​national pride, has made it malicious today. Evidences from various election-end surveys of Lokniti-CSDS so far from the 1996 Lok Sabha elections indicate that the BJP has also made a deep penetration among the voter sections that did not vote for it for decades.

There may be a dispute over the population of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), but evidence of these surveys shows that the BJP has also gained widespread support in this large voter class. In the 1996 election, only 19% OBC voters voted for BJP, but in the 2024 election, BJP got 43% of this class. This explains the BJP’s widespread mass base among OBC voters.

Similarly, the BJP has also strengthened its hold in Bahujan Samaj called Dalit, Adivasi. In the 1996 election, the party got only 14% of the Dalit community votes, which increased to 31% in 2024. Among the tribal voters, the party won 48% votes in 2024 as compared to 21% of the 1996 votes.

Traditionally, the BJP was considered a party that was popular among the upper and middle class voters. The party was not liked as much in the voters of poor sections. But from the point of view of voters of various economic classes, there has been a lot of change in the party’s support base.

Now the party is equally popular among high and medium age as well as poor class voters. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP got 24% of the voters belonging to the poor, which increased to 37% in 2024.

In the BJP ruled states, schemes were continuously provided to the poor and due to this it was possible. Very few, but also the party has gained support among Muslim voters. In the 1996 election, 2% Muslim vote party was received, while in 2024 the figure reached 8%.

This expansion in BJP’s support base can be seen not only from community, but also from geographical perspective. The party, called the party of urban India, became equally popular in villages in the last decade. While 30% of the rural voters voted for the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in 2024 it received 36% of the votes from the villages.

This expansion in the BJP’s support base clearly made the party a party on which it is very difficult to win. On the basis of this expansion, the party not only won several elections one after another, but formed governments in 14 states and coalition parties in seven states.

It is also necessary to add here that the BJP also created history by winning continuously in 2014, 2019 and 2024. Today’s BJP has a comparatively more permanent mass base than the BJP’s era of Atal-Advani. The new BJP is for staying, because today the roots of the party are much deeper and widespread.

At one time, the BJP was called the Brahmin-Baniya Party. But since then, due to the widespread changes in the supporters of the party, it has also been deeply rooted among the voters of rural, Bahujan, lower and poor sections. (These are the author’s own views)