Lal Krishna Advani is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. He is one of the co-founders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. He is the longest serving Minister of Home Affairs serving from 1998 to 2004. He is also the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He was the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP during the 2009 general election.
Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda is an Indian politician who served as the 11th prime minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. He presently is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing Karnataka. He is the national president of the Janata Dal (Secular) party. Born in a farming family, he joined the Indian National Congress party in 1953, and remained a member until 1962. He was imprisoned during the Emergency. He became President of the state unit of Janata Dal in 1994, and was considered to be a driving force in the party's victory in Karnataka. He served as the 8th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. In the 1996 general elections, no party won enough seats to form a government. When the United Front, a coalition of regional parties, formed the central government with the support of the Congress, Deve Gowda was unexpectedly chosen to head the government and was elected Prime Minister. During his tenure as prime minister, he also served as Home Minister for some time. His prime ministerial tenure lasted for less than a year. After his prime ministerial tenure, he was elected to the 12th (1998), 14th (2004), 15th, and 16th Lok Sabha, as Member of Parliament for the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. He lost Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Tumkuru but has been elected to Rajya Sabha since.
Ram Vilas Paswan was an Indian politician from Bihar and the Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the first and second Modi ministries. Paswan was also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, nine-times Lok Sabha member and two-time Rajya Sabha MP. He started his political career as member of Samyukta Socialist Party and was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1969. Later, Paswan joined Lok Dal upon its formation in 1974, and became its general secretary. He opposed the emergency, and was arrested during this period. He first entered the Lok Sabha in 1977, as a Janata Party member from Hajipur constituency, and was elected again in 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy is an Indian politician from Bihar. He is a four-time Member of Parliament representing Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2023, he won from Saran in Bihar. Earlier, he won three times in 1996, 1999 and 2014 from Chapra Assembly Constituency, which later became Saran. He was also an MLA from Taraiya Assembly Constituency representing Janata Dal in 1990. He is also a licensed pilot.
Vijaya Raje Scindia, known popularly as the Rajmata of Gwalior, was an Indian politician and consort of the last ruling Maharaja of Gwalior, Jiwajirao Scindia, in British Raj. In later life, she was elected repeatedly to both houses of the Indian parliament. She was one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is a political party based primarily in the Indian state of Haryana. It was initially founded as the Haryana Lok Dal (Rashtriya) by Devi Lal in 1996, who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of India.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan is an Indian politician who is serving as the 32nd Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and 23rd Minister of Rural Development since 11 June 2024. He was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 to 2023 and previously from 2005 to 2018 and a Member of Legislative Assembly in Madhya Pradesh from Budhni since 2006 to 2024 and previously from 1990 to 1991. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
Haradanahalli Devegowda Kumaraswamy, is an Indian politician and film producer who is serving as 22nd Minister of Heavy Industries, 35th Minister of Steel since 2024. He also served as the 18th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 2018 to 2019 and previously from 2006 to 2007. He is presently serving as the Minister of Heavy Industries and Minister of Steel in the Government of India. He was also the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from 2013 to 2014. He is currently the president of the Karnataka State Janata Dal (Secular). He is a member of Lok Sabha, having been elected from Mandya and the current member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Channapatna since 2018, Ramanagara from 2004 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2018. He is the son of former prime minister of India & former Chief Minister of Karnataka H. D. Deve Gowda.
Although India is a parliamentary democracy, the country's politics has become dynastic or with high level of nepotism, possibly due to the absence of party organizations, independent civil-society associations which mobilize support for a party, or centralized financing of elections. The dynastic phenomenon is present at the national, state, regional, and district level. The Nehru–Gandhi family has produced three Indian prime ministers, and family members have largely led the Congress party since 1978. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has several dynastic leaders. In addition to the major national parties, other national and regional parties such as Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal Secular, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Kerala Congress, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Indian Union Muslim League, AIMIM, and the Nationalist Congress Party are all dominated by families, mostly those of the party founders.
Digvijaya Singh is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha. He is Ex-General Secretary of the Indian National Congress party's All India Congress Committee. Previously, he had served as the 14th Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, a central Indian state, for two terms from 1993 to 2003. Prior to that he was a minister in Chief Minister Arjun Singh's cabinet between 1980 and 1984. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections he was defeated by Pragya Singh Thakur for Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.
Kalyan Singh was an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament. He was the Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh during the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. He is considered an icon of Hindu nationalism, and of the agitation to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Ashok Chhaviram Argal is an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1996, he was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from Morena constituency in Madhya Pradesh. In 1998, 1999 and 2004, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from the same constituency. In 2009, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhind constituency in Madhya Pradesh graduate in 2008-09 from Chitrakoot gramoday Vishwavidyalaya.
Neeraj Shekhar Singh is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a Lok Sabha MP for 2 terms and a Rajya Sabha MP as a Samajwadi Party member. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 and became a Rajya Sabha MP again.
Suvendu Adhikari is an Indian politician from Bharatiya Janata Party who is the current Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly since 2021 and a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Nandigram Assembly constituency since 2021 and from Contai South from 2006 to 2009.
Sanjaya Sinh, also known as Sanjay Singh, is an Indian politician and a former member of the Rajya Sabha. He was twice elected to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh during the 1980s and held state ministerial posts. In 1990, he became a member of the upper house of the Parliament of India, which is known as the Rajya Sabha, and in 1998 he was elected to the lower house, called the Lok Sabha. His term in the 12th Lok Sabha session lasted until the following year. Subsequently, in 2009, he was successful in obtaining a second term in that house as a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Sultanpur constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He represented the state of Assam in the Rajya Sabha. He resigned from Rajya Sabha and Indian National Congress to join Bharatiya Janata Party on 30 July 2019.
Dimple Yadav is an Indian politician and the incumbent member of parliament from Mainpuri of Uttar Pradesh since June 2024. She has earlier served as member of the Lok Sabha for two terms from Kannauj and for one term from Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.
Dara Singh Chauhan is an Indian politician, currently serving as member of legislative council, and formerly represented the Madhuban in Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bharatiya Janata Party. He was former Cabinet Minister in Yogi Adityanath ministry. He also represented Ghosi in the 15th Lok Sabha, where he was leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party. In 16th Lok Sabha, he was defeated by Harinarayan Rajbhar who represented Bharatiya Janata Party by more than 140,000 votes.
Lakshman Singh is an Indian politician who represented the Indian National Congress (INC), and later its rival BJP in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. He is a 5 term Member of Parliament and 3 term Member of legislative Assembly.
Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma is an Indian politician and a Member of parliament (MP) from West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. As a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is serving his second term as an MP for West Delhi. In 2014 he was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha, and re-elected in 2019 for the 17th Lok Sabha with the highest ever margin of victory in the history of Delhi, a margin of 578,486 votes.
Renu Kushawaha, an Indian politician, is a leader of Lok Janshakti Party and a former state minister of Bihar. She hails from Khagaria. She has been associated with several political parties in past, right from Samata Party and Janata Dal (United) to Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2015, she contested from Samastipur Assembly seat on a BJP ticket where she lost to RJD candidate.
