The ' instrumentalisation ' of the Ayodhya issue and the related communal riots which polarised the electorate along religious lines helped the BJP make good progress in the subsequent elections of 1989 , 1991 and 1996 . However , in the mid-1990s , BJP adopted a more moderate approach to politics in order to make allies . As Jaffrelot remarks , it was because the party realised during then that it would not be in a position to form the government on its own in the near future . In 1998 , it built a major coalition , National Democratic Alliance ( NDA ) , in the Lok Sabha and succeeded in the general election in 1998 , and was able to succeed again in the mid-term elections of 1999 , with Vajpayee as their Prime Ministerial candidate . Though the RSS and other Sangh Parivar components appreciated some of the steps taken by the Vajpayee government , like the testing of a nuclear bomb , they felt disappointed with the government 's overall performance . The fact that no solid step was taken towards building the Ram temple in Ayodhya was resented by the VHP . The liberalisation policy of the government faced objection from the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh , a trade union controlled by the RSS . Jaffrelot says , RSS and the other Sangh Parivar elements had come to the view that the " BJP leaders had been victims of their thirst for power : they had preferred to compromise to remain in office instead of sticking to their principles . " After the end of Vajpayee 's tenure in 2004 , BJP remained as a major opposition party in the subsequent years ; and again in the year 2014 , the NDA came to power after BJP gained an overwhelming majority in the 2014 general elections , with Narendra Modi , a former RSS member who previously served as Gujarat 's chief minister for three tenures , as their prime ministerial candidate . Modi was able to project himself as a person who could bring about " development " , without focus on any specific policies , through the " Gujarat development model " which was frequently used to counter the allegations of communalism . Voter dissatisfaction with the Congress , as well as the support from RSS are also stated as reasons for the BJP 's success in the 2014 elections
testing of a nuclear bomb
Pokhran-II
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh