The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is a centre-right political alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Bharatiya Janata Party. Indian People’s Party; abbr. BJP) is one of two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress. It is the current ruling political party of the Republic of India, having been so since 2014. 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 Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As of 2026, it is the country’s largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies and is by far the world’s largest party in terms of primary membership, with the second largest party, the Chinese Communist Party, having about half the registered members of the BJP.
Structure
The National Democratic Alliance does not have a formal governing structure 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 then national president of the JD(U) political party. On 16 June 2013, the JD(U) left the coalition and Sharad Yadav resigned from the role of the NDA convener. Then the CM of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu was made the NDA convener.
On 27 July 2017 JD(U) with the help of BJP formed the government in Bihar. Later, on 19 August 2017 JD(U) formally rejoined the NDA after 4 years.