Political sociology analyzes the relationship between politics and society. It examines how social forces influence political policies and institutions. A political party is an organized group of citizens that shares political views and aims to control government through constitutional means. Political parties perform important functions like educating the public, giving citizens a voice, and restraining ruling parties. The BJP originated from Hindu nationalist movements in India. It came to power nationally in 2014 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has focused on economic development, national security, and improving foreign relations.

2. Political sociology is concerned with the sociological analysis of political
phenomena ranging from the state and civil society to the family, investigating
topics such as citizenship, social movements and the sources of social power.
In simple words, political sociology is a discipline that is primarily concerned
with the relationship between the state and society. It explores how various
social forces work together to change political policies.
ACCORDING TO SMELSER AND JAY-
“Political sociology can be defined as the study of inter- relation between
society and polity between social structure and political institutions.”
ACCORDING TO R. BENDIX AND S.M. LIPSET-
“Political sociology starts with society and examines how it affects the state.”

5. A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to complete in a
country’s elections. Some countries have one political party while others have
dozens, but it is extremely rare for a country to have no political parties.
Parties can develop from existing divisions in the society, like the division
between lower and upper classes.
Political party usually include a PARTY LEADER, who has primary
responsibility for the activities of the party; PARTY EXECUTIVE, who may select
the leader and who perform administrative and organizational tasks; and PARTY
MEMBERS, who may volunteer to help the party, donate money to it, and vote
for its candidates.
India has several political parties. In the post independence period, India has
witnessed transformation from dominance of single party, the CONGRESS in the
1950s – 1960s, into multiplication of parties in the later period.
Political party forms and important component of a political system. The
principal feature of a political party which distinguishes it from other
organizations is that its main purpose is to capture power. Political parties are
important link between individuals, state and society.

6. ACCORDING TO BURK- “ Party is a body of man united for promoting
their joint endeavour by joint interest on some particular interest in which
they are all agreeing.”
ACCORDING TO LORD BRYCE- “Parties are inevitable no free
country has been without them, no one could show how representative
government would work without them. ”
ACCORDING TO GILLCHRIST- “Political parties maybe defined as an
organized group of citizens who profess to share the same political view
and who by acting as a political unit to control the government.”
ACCORDING TO MacIver- “A political party is an association
organised in support of some principle or policy which by constitutional
means it endeavour to make the determinant of government.”

7. Some of the characteristics of political party are:
1) ORGANISATION OF CITIZENS – Political party is an organised group. Its
members are disciplined according to certain norms and rules. They can’t achieve
their aims without some sort of organisation.
2) UNITY OF IDEAS AND POLICIES – The members of a party are distinguished
from the members of the other party by thoughts and policies. These thoughts and
policies in a particular political party are united.
3) FAITH IN CONSTITUTIONAL MEANS – As distinguished from revolutionary
party, a political party has faith in constitutional means of changing the
government. If the constitution is abolished the political party has no validity.
4) CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT – Most of political parties aim at control of
government. They take part in elections and seek membership of legislative
bodies to form the opposition groups to check, criticise and control the
government.
5) SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL INTERESTS – Though it is controversial as to in
which policy the national interests are best safeguarded, each political party
claims that it alone can safeguard the national interest and lead the nation.

8. All political parties have some functions, main functions of political party are:
1) CONTROL OVER GOVERNMENT – The primary function of political
party is to secure the control over government by majority support from
electorates.
2) RESTRAINT ON RULING PARTY – Another function of a political party,
when out of power, or in opposition, is to exercise restraint over the ruling
party by opposing and criticising its policies as and when such policies are
found detrimental to the national interests. Fro example- today the
CONGRESS which is in the opposition is questioning the failure of
JANATA government in checking prices of essential commodities and
criticising on various other issues.
3) OUTLET FOR PUBLIC OPINION – In a democracy the political parties
provide a healthy outlet to the people to speak out their viewpoints. Thus
people give voice to their attitudes through favouring the party which they
think best reflects their attitudes and interests.

9. 4) UNITY ON NATIONAL ISSUES – Political parties are not always
fighting to grab the national power. The opposition while adopting
the tactics of obstructions and criticisms of the actions of the ruling
party, will also have to cooperate with it on various national issues.
5) RESPONSIBILITY FOR POLICIES – Another function of a political
party is to assume their responsibility for their policies and actions,
that why are they fit to form a government in the country.
6) MASS EDUCATION – Political parties acts as agents of mass
education in political activity. Political parties acts as a mediators
between government and the people and educate the masses about
the implication of novel government policies. They also perform the
function of organizing the public opinion.
7) CHECKS AND BALANCES – Political parties help in the operation
of checks and balances in a democracy. They provide different sets of
policies and programmes from which the people can choose as the
ideal alternative according to their needs.

10. In India, in 1968, the Election Commission issued the election symbols (reservation
and allotment ) order to, “provide for specification, reservation, choice and allotment
of symbols at elections in parliamentary and assembly constituencies, for the
recognition of political parties in relation thereto and for matter connected
therewith”.
Some main types of political parties in India are:
(1) NATIONAL PARTY
According to the Election Commission, for being considered as a national party a
political party should at least have one of the following qualification-
 It has to win a minimum of 2% of the seats in Lok Sabha from at least three
different states.
 In general elections, the party must manage to win 6% of the votes and win at least
4 Lok Sabha seats.
 It should be recognised as a state level party in four or more states.
Currently, there are seven national parties in India : INDIAN NATIONAL
CONGRESS (INC) , BHARATIYA JANTA PARTY (BJP), BAHUJAN SAMAJ PARTY
(BSP), COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (CPI), COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA –
MARXIST (CPI (M)), NATIONAL CONGRESS PARTY (NCP), ALL INDIA
TRINAMOOL CONGRESS.

12. (2) STATE PARTY/ REGIONAL PARTY
According to Election Commission, to be considered as a state party, a
party should have one of the qualification –
 It must have engaged in political activity for at least 5 years.
 It must have won either 4% of the seats in the general elections or 3%
in stat elections.
 In addition, it must have has the support of 6% of the votes cast.
Currently, there are 36 recognized state parties in India, some of them
are:
AAM AADMI PARTY (AAP), ALL INDIA ANNA DRAVIDA
MUNNETRA KAZHAGAM (AIADMK), BIJU JANTA DAL (BJD) ,
SAMAJWADI PARTY (SP), ETC.
(3) REGISTERED / UNRECOGNISED PARTY
Registered party is a party that is neither recognised as a state nor as a
national party, but it is registered with Election Commission. It is also
known as unrecognised party. At present, there are more than 2,000
registered parties in India.

15. BHARTIYA JANTA PARTY
Bhartiya Janta Party is one of the two major political parties in India,
along with the Indian National Congress. It is the current ruling party
of India. The BJP is a right wing party, and its policy has historically
reflected Hindu nationalist positions. It has close ideological and
organisational links to the much older RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEWAK
SANGH (RSS).
ORIGIN AND ESTABLISHMENT
 The BJP traces its roots to the Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS), which was
established in 1951 as the political wing of the pro- Hindu group
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
 In 1967, the BJS gained a substantial foothold in the hindi- speaking
regions of Northern Indian. Ten years later, the party, led by Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, joined 3 other political parties to form the Janta party and
took over the reins of government.

18.  Plagued by factionalism and internal disputes, however the
government collapsed in July 1979. The BJP was formally established
in 1980, the BJS subsequently reorganised itself as the BJP under the
leadership of Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
 The BJP advocated HINDUTVA, an ideology that sought to define
Indian culture in terms of hindu values.
 The BJP began to have electoral success in 1989, when it capitalized
on anti- muslim feeling by calling for the erection of a hindu temple in
an area of Ayodhya.
 The demolition of Babri Masjid in december 1992 by organizations
seen to be associated with the BJP caused a major backlash against the
party.
Then the party was under suspicion of provoking violence in India.
To gain support back, BJP organised rallies.

20. NDA GOVERNMENT (2014 - PRESENT)
In 2014 general election, the BJP won 282 seats, leading the NDA to a
tally of 336 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha. Narendra Modi was sworm
in as the 14th Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014.
This was the first time since 1984 of a single party achieving an
outright majority in the Indian parliament and the first time that it
achieved a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own strength.
Political analysis have suggested several reasons for this victory,
including popularity of Modi, and loss of support for Congress due to
corruption scandals in its previous terms. BJP also received support
from middle class and Dalit people and other OBCs.
In 2019, the BJP won the general elections with a majority. Soon after
coming to power again, on 5th august 2019, the Modi administration
revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted under
ARTICLE 370 of the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir.

22. Later in 2019, the Modi government introduced the Citizenship
Amendment Act, 2019 which was passed on 11 December 2019. It amended
citizenship act, 1955 by providing a path of Indian citizenship for illegal
immigrant of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, Christian religious
minorities who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and
Afghanistan before December 2014. Muslims from those countries were not
given such eligibility. The act was the first time religion had been overtly
used as a criterion fro citizenship under Indian law.
PRESENCE IN STATES AND UTs
As of february 2021, the BJP holds a majority of legislative
assembly in 12 states – ARUNACHAL PRADESH, ASSAM, GOA,
GUJARAT, HIMACHAL PRADESH, KARNATAKA, MADHYA
PRADESH, MANIPUR, TRIPURA, UTTAR PRADESH AND
UTTARAKHAND.
In other 7 states, BIHAR, MEGHALAYA, MIZORAM,
NAGALAND, ODISHA, SIKKIM AND TAMIL NADU, it shares
power as a junior partner with other political parties of NDA
coalition.

23. ECONOMIC POLICIES
The BJP’s economic policy has changed considerably since its
founding. In the 1980s it supported SWADESHI (the promotion of
indigenous industries and products in India) and a protectonist
export policy.
During 1996 elections, the BJP shifted its stance away from
protectionism and towards GLOBALISATION. The tenure of NDA
saw an unprecedented influx of foreign companies in India.
The NDA government in the period 1998-2004 introduced
significant deregulation and privatisation of government owned
enterprises. It also introduced tariff reducing measures. India’s
GDP growth increased substantially during the tenure of NDA.
Modi has been described as taking a more economically populist
approach on healthcare and agriculture policy.
In 2020, Modi introduced the plan of AATMANIRBHAR
BHARAT economic plan, which emphasizes national self
sufficiency.

25. DEFENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM
Compared to the Congress, BJP takes a more aggressive and nationalistic
position on defence policy and terrorism. The Vajpayee led NDA
government carry out nuclear weapons tests at POKHARAN- 2, a 5 nuclear
test series in 1998. The Vajpayee government ordered the Indian armed
forces to expel the Pakistani soldiers occupying Kashmir territory, later
known as KARGIL WAR.
The Modi government has conducted several strikes on territory controlled
by neighbouring countries on counterterrorism grounds. This includes : 2015
Indian counter insurgency operation in Myanmar against National council of
Nagaland, the 2016 Indian line of control strike in Pakistan- administered
Kashmir, and 2019 Balakot airstrike in Pakistan.
FOREIGN POLICY
BJP always tried to focus on its foreign policy. Vajpayee government
tried to improve relations with Pakistan but couldn’t which was later
improved by Modi government by visiting Pakistan in 2015. Modi
government also focused on improving relations with several
countries like United States, U.S.S.R, etc.

26. Political sociology is the sub discipline of sociology. It tells us the relation
between politics and society.
Political party is a group of citizens who profess to share the same political
view and control the government.
Political party have different functions such as mass education, control the
government, outlet for public opinion, etc.
BJP is one of the two important national party in India. Its origin lies back at
the time of RSS. Earlier, it focused on ram janambhoomi movement and
formed a strong base with hindu supporters. But due to fight in the country it
lost its power.
In 2014, Narendra Modi became Prime Minister and since then the BJP
government is in power in India. BJP always tried to make the country self
sufficient and focused on concepts like SWADESHI AND AATMANIRBHAR
BHARAT. BJP reduced the terrorism by fighting back and encouraged people
to participate in defence. BJP improved the foreign policy of nation by
improving relations with other countries such as U.S., U.S.S.R., etc.