Abstract
Has the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in power in India’s central government following its massive mandate in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, become a normal member of India’s party family, or does it remain the quintessential outsider, whose electoral success is seen as a threat to India’s liberal, democratic and secular ethos? This article applies the Downsian median voter argument to analyze this puzzle. A comparison with the gradual moderation of Europe’s Christian Democratic parties helps generate four enabling conditions that account for the moderation of extremist parties in electoral democracies. Taking these conditions into account, the article explains why the BJP, while fully integrated within the electoral system of India, is nevertheless seen by India’s mainstream parties and bulk of the media and civil society groups as an outsider to the democratic political system, and why the BJP’s ambivalent moderation is likely to endure, at least in the short run.
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