L. K. Advani in the context of "Minister of Home Affairs (India)"

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO: Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan) is an Indian big tent multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded on 15 May 1998. It currently has a majority in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, and controls the Government of India as well as the governments of 19 out of 28 Indian states and 2 out of 3 Union territories with legislative assemblies.

Its first chairman was then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee. L. K. Advani, the former Deputy Prime Minister, took over as chairman in 2004 and served until 2014, and Amit Shah has been the chairman since 2014. The coalition ruled from 1998 to 2004. The alliance returned to power in the 2014 general elections with a combined vote share of 38.5%. Its leader Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014. In the 2019 general election, the alliance further increased its tally to 353 seats with combined vote share of 45.43%. The alliance lost 60 seats in the 2024 general election, but retained enough to form a coalition government, a first in over 10 years. On 7 June 2024, Modi confirmed the support of 293 MPs to Droupadi Murmu, the President of India. This marked Modi's third term as Prime Minister and his first time heading a coalition government, with the Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh and Janata Dal (United) of Bihar emerging as two main allies.

Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 26 Lok Sabha (lower house of Indian Parliament) constituencies in Gujarat, a state in Western India. Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat. It is one of the most prestigious parliamentary constituencies in India, being represented by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and the current Home Minister and former BJP chief Amit Shah. The constituency was created in 1967 and its first member of parliament (MP) was Somchandbhai Solanki of the Indian National Congress (INC).

Solanki represented the Indian National Congress (Organisation) party for the next elections in 1971 and was re-elected. In the 1977 election, Purushottam Mavalankar (son of the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar) of the Janata Party was elected. Mavalankar was defeated in the next election in 1980 by INC candidate, Amrit Mohanal Patel. I.G. Patel also of the INC was elected in 1984. Since 1989 this constituency has been a bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shankersinh Vaghela won in the 1989 election and the next election saw L. K. Advani elected in 1991. Atal Bihari Vajpayee won this seat in 1996 but chose to resign it so that he could represent Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. This forced a by-election which was won by Vijay Patel, who defeated film actor Rajesh Khanna (INC), among other candidates. The constituency has been represented by one Prime Minister (Vajpayee), one future Chief Minister (Vaghela), and two Home Ministers in Advani and Amit Shah.

The Ram Rath Yatra (lit. 'Ram chariot journey') was a political and religious rally that lasted from September to October 1990. It was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist affiliates, and led by the then-president of the BJP, L. K. Advani. The purpose of the yatra was to support the agitation, led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its affiliates in the Sangh Parivar, to erect a temple to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Masjid.

The masjid, or mosque, had been built in the city of Ayodhya following the Mughal conquest of the region in 1528. According to hearsay, it was built over a temple dedicated to Rama, and stood on the site of his birth. In the 1980s, the VHP and other Sangh Parivar affiliates began an agitation to build a temple to Rama at the site, with the BJP lending political support to the movement. In 1990, the government of India led by V. P. Singh decided to implement some of the recommendations of the Mandal commission, and announced that twenty-seven percent of government jobs would be reserved for people from Other Backward Class. This announcement threatened the electoral constituency of the BJP, which decided to use the Ayodhya dispute to unite the Hindu vote by mobilising anti-Muslim sentiment.

The Babri Masjid, a 16th-century mosque in the Indian city of Ayodhya, was destroyed on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The mosque had been the subject of a lengthy socio-political dispute, and was targeted after a political rally organised by Hindu nationalist organisations turned violent.

In Hindu tradition, the city of Ayodhya is the birthplace of Rama. In the 16th century, a Mughal commander, Mir Baqi, had built a mosque, known as the Babri Masjid at a site identified by some Hindus as Ram Janmabhoomi, or the birthplace of Rama. The Archaeological Survey of India states that the mosque was built on land where a non-Islamic structure had previously existed. In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its political voice. Several rallies and marches were held as a part of this movement, including the Ram Rath Yatra led by L. K. Advani.