As a political strategist and deep thinker you are part of BJP’s top leadership—alongside PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Today the BJP is the world’s largest political party in terms of membership, ahead of the Communist Party in China and the Democratic Party and Republic Party in the USA. It also has secured an unprecedented 303 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections. As someone closely involved with the party’s evolution, how would you describe the journey?

For the Bharatiya Janata Party it has been a nearly 70-year-old journey, following the independence of the nation. Our political vision was to combine India’s value systems with modern thinking and technology. This vision was formally presented during the inception of the party (known earlier as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) in 1951 with Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee as founder and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay as a co-founder and ideologue. Several eminent leaders have been part of this evolving journey—one of them, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was Prime Minister who successfully ran a coalition Government in the country.

As you know, during the course of this journey we’ve provided good governance in different states. Today, of course, it is a moment of pride as a party functionary and worker to witness the formation of a new Government in India—the nation that is also the world’s largest democracy—under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi. So as the BJP has worked its way to becoming the world’s largest political party, different leaders, at different times, have played their part. Thanks to the policies of the Narendra Modi Government and the guidance and direction of Mr Amit Shah, the party has become the central focus of Indian polity. But we believe that we’ve still not reached our peak, there are goals ahead of us which we are yet looking to accomplish. As a party we’ll scale newer heights.