Lok Sabha Elections 2024: List of parties competing in the upcoming polls

India, the world’s largest democracy is set to hold its general elections, with around 970 million registered voters heading to the polls to choose who will lead the country for the next five years. 

In the upcoming election, the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has sought a third consecutive term in office. 

Meanwhile, 26 opposition parties in the country, last year, formed an alliance called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to stop the PM Modi-led NDA from winning in the upcoming elections. 

Currently, there are two main alliances – NDA and INDIA – which include several parties. 

The BJP-led NDA is an alliance of right-wing conservative parties in India formed in 1998 to keep Congress out of power. The NDA alliance won in 1999 under the leadership of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and has been in power since 2014 with PM Modi at the helm. 

Prominent parties in the NDA alliance include the National People’s Party (NPP), Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Janata Dal (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP). 

The prime ministerial candidate of the alliance in the upcoming election is the incumbent PM Narendra Modi who has claimed that the NDA will win more than 400 seats in the lower house of parliament (Lok Sabha). 

In 2023, 26 opposition parties in the country came together to form the INDIA bloc. Currently, the alliance is being led by Mallikarjun Kharge who is also the president of the Congress party since 2022 and has been the leader of the opposition in the upper house of the parliament (Rajya Sabha), since the year before that. 

Prominent parties in the INDIA alliance include All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Rashtriya Janata Dal. 

While the incumbent PM has claimed that their alliance will win more than 400 seats, the INDIA alliance is yet to choose their prime ministerial candidate with many politicians in the bloc vying for the role.

Speaking about the uncertainty, the alliance’s PM candidate, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, last week downplaying the issue said party ideology and campaigning are more important. 

“In our country, elections are not beauty contests. In our country, competition is held between the parties, its ideology, its symbol, its campaigning,” Ramesh told news agency ANI. 

(With inputs from agencies)