National Democratic Alliance (India)

History

The National Democratic Alliance was formed in May 1998 as a coalition to contest the general elections. It was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and included several regional parties, including the Samata Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), as well as Shiv Sena, the only member which shared the Hindutva ideology of the BJP.^[2][3] With outside support provided by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the NDA was able to muster a slim majority in the elections of 1998, and Atal Bihari Vajpayeereturned as prime minister.^[4] The government collapsed within a year because the (AIADMK) withdrew its support. After the entry of a few more regional parties, the NDA proceeded to win the 1999 elections with a larger majority. Vajpayee became prime minister for a third time, this time for a full five year term.^[5]

The NDA called elections in early 2004, six months ahead of schedule. Its campaign was based around the slogan of "India Shining" which attempted to depict the NDA government as responsible for a rapid economic transformation of the country. However, the NDA unexpectedly suffered a heavy defeat, winning only a 186 seats in the Lok Sabha, compared to the 222 of the United Progressive Alliance led by the Congress, with Manmohan Singh succeeding Vajpayee as prime minister. Some commentators have stated that the NDA's failure to reach out to rural Indians was the explanation for its defeat; others have pointed to its "divisive" policy agenda as the reason.^[6][7]

Structure

The National Democratic Alliance does not have a formal governing structure in place, such as an executive board or politburo. It has been up to the leaders of the individual parties to make decisions on issues such as sharing of seats in elections, allocation of ministries and the issues that are raised in Parliament. Given the varied ideologies among the parties, there have been many cases of disagreement and split voting among the allies. Owing to ill health, George Fernandes, who was the NDA convener until 2008, was discharged of his responsibility and replaced by Sharad Yadav, the national president of the Janata Dal(United) political party. On 16 June 2013, the JD(U) left the coalition andSharad Yadav resigned from the role of the NDA convener.^[8]

Songs[edit]

No.	Song Name	Singer	Lyrics	Music Director
1	Modi Aane Wala Hai	Udit Narayan	Abeer Vajpayee	Abeer Vajpayee
2	Main Desh Nahi Mitne Dunga	Sukhwinder Singh & Narendra Modi	Prasoon Joshi	Aadesh Shrivastava
3	Main Kamal Khilane Aaya Hun	Prabhakar Tiwari & Pravesh Mallik	Abeer Vajpayee	Abeer Vajpayee