Modi greets BJP on party's foundation day

More than 10 months after he led it to a sweeping election victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday greeted BJP activists on its 35th birth anniversary.

"On the BJP's 'Sthapana Diwas', my greetings to all the BJP 'karyakartas' and well-wishers," the prime minister said in a tweet.

"BJP's phenomenal growth is due to the efforts and hard work of generations of selfless 'karyakartas' who devoted their lives to our nation," he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which now rules the country, would "leave no stone unturned to fulfil people's aspirations and create an India that is strong, developed and inclusive", Modi added.

The BJP was founded on April 6, 1980, after its earlier incarnation, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, merged into the Janata Party along with other parties in 1977. The Janata Party dethroned the Congress that year.

After Indira Gandhi led the Congress back to power in January 1980, the Janata Party broke up.

The BJP suffered a rout in the 1984 Lok Sabha election but then began to grow from the late 1980s. It formed three governments, for a total of some six years, all headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

And after a decade in the opposition, Modi led to the BJP -- now the largest political party in the world -- to a stunning victory in the 2014 parliamentary election.