for more than 54 years. There have been six prime ministers from the Congress party, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964), and the most recent being Manmohan Singh (2004-2014). Since the 1990s, the Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the main rival of the Congress in both national and regional politics.

In 1969, the party suffered a major split, with a faction led by Indira Gandhi leaving to form