The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
General elections were held in India in four phases between 20 April and 10 May 2004. Over 670 million people were eligible to vote, electing 543 members of the 14th Lok Sabha. Seven states also held assembly elections to elect state governments. They were the first elections fully carried out with electronic voting machines.
The Biju Janata Dal is an Indian regional political party with significant influence in the state of Odisha. It was founded by the former minister of mines and minerals of the Republic of India Naveen Patnaik on 26 December 1997 as a breakaway faction from the Janata Dal. The BJD is led by its founder as president of the party. The headquarters of the party is located in Forest Park, Bhubaneswar.
Naveen Patnaik is an Indian politician who served as the 14th Chief Minister of Odisha from 5 March 2000 to 12 June 2024. His 24-year reign is the second longest for a chief minister of any Indian state, after Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim. He is the first president of the Biju Janata Dal since 1997. He served as the Union Minister of Steel and Mines from 1998 to 2000 and a member of the Lok Sabha from Aska from 1997 to 2000.
General elections were held in India in five phases between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009 to elect the members of the fifteenth Lok Sabha. With an electorate of 716 million, it was the largest democratic election in the world until being surpassed by the 2014 general election.
General elections were held in India on 27 April, 2 May and 7 May 1996 to elect the members of the eleventh Lok Sabha. The elections resulted in a hung parliament with no single party having a clear majority. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had won the most seats, formed a short-lived government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, two weeks later the United Front coalition was able to secure a parliamentary majority and H. D. Deve Gowda of Janata Dal became Prime Minister. In 1997 Inder Kumar Gujral, also from the United Front, succeeded Gowda as Prime Minister. Due to the instability, early elections were held in 1998. The elections were the first since 1980 in which every states' seats were elected in a single election period.
The politics of Odisha are part of India's federal parliamentary representative democracy, where the union government exercises sovereign rights. Certain powers are reserved to the states, including Odisha. The state has a multi-party system, in which the two main parties are the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the regional, socialist Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The Indian National Congress (INC) has also significant presence.
Phulbani Lok Sabha constituency was a Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency in Orissa state in eastern India till 2008.
The 2009 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh were held for 80 seats with the state going to polls across all the five phases of the general elections. The major contenders in the state were the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Indian National Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Fourth Front. NDA consisted of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal whereas the fourth front was constituted of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha state in eastern India. This constituency came into existence in 2008, following the implementation of delimitation of parliamentary constituencies based on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission of India constituted in 2002.
The 2009 Odisha Legislative Assembly election took place in April 2009, concurrently with the general election. The elections were held in the state in two phases. The results were declared on 16 May. Despite having recently separated from the Bharatiya Janata Party after an eleven-year partnership, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) retained power in the Odisha State Assembly with a more convincing majority. Party chief Naveen Patnaik was formally re-elected as the BJD Legislature party leader on 19 May, thus paving the way for his third consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Odisha.
Manoj Pradhan is an Indian politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was convicted of murder in January 2010. He was elected from the G. Udayagiri assembly constituency from the state of Orissa. He has been convicted in two cases of murder during the Kandhamal riots of 2008, in which 38 people were killed and more than 25,000 Christians were displaced. During the swearing-in of the state assembly, Pradhan was in jail but was given 15 days bail so he could participate.
In Indian politics, the Third Front refers to temporary alliances which began in 1989 among smaller parties to offer a third option to Indian voters. These alliances arose to challenge the Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Balasore is a Vidhan Sabha constituency of Balasore district, Odisha.
The 2014 Indian general election polls in Odisha for 21 Lok Sabha seats were held in two phases on 10 and 17 April 2014.
Bijoy Mohapatra is a politician from Odisha. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, he was Irrigation Minister of Odisha from 1990 to 1995 in the Biju Patnaik cabinet. He was the most powerful minister in Biju Patnaik's cabinet. He was four times MLA from Patkura Constituency of Kendrapara district. He won four straight elections in 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1995.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in 2016 for 294 seats of the Vidhan Sabha in the Indian state of West Bengal. The All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee won 211 seats, and thus was re-elected with an enhanced majority. Like in the 2011 election, the poll was held in six phases, with the first phase divided into two days. The first phase was held in Naxalite-Maoist affected red corridor areas with two polling dates: 4 April and 11 April. The other phases were held on 17, 21, 25, 30 April and 5 May. The result of the election was declared on 19 May.
The North-East Democratic Alliance is a political coalition that was formed on May 24, 2016, by Bharatiya Janata Party. The motive of the new political front was to unite non-Congress parties in Northeast India. Himanta Biswa Sarma was appointed as the convenor of the front.
Elections in the Republic of India in 2018 included by-elections to the Lok Sabha, elections to the Rajya Sabha, elections to of eight states and numerous other by-elections to state legislative assemblies, councils and local bodies.
The 2019 Odisha assembly election, held between April 11 and April 29, was the 16th quinquennial legislative assembly election to elect 147 MLAs to the 16th legislative assembly of Odisha. Covering 147 constituencies across four phases, the polls coincided with the Lok Sabha elections. Vote counting for the assembly election took place on May 23, concluding before the previous Odisha Assembly's term expiration on June 11.
