Indian National Congress (NIC)

The Indian National Congress (abbr. INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots.  Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa.  From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement.  Congress led India to independence from the United Kingdom, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.  Due to its enduring history, the Congress is often called the "grand old party".

The INC is one of the two major political parties in India, along with its main rival the Bharatiya Janata Party.  It is a "big tent" party whose platform is generally considered to lie in the centre-left of Indian politics. After Indian independence in 1947, Congress emerged as a catch-all party, dominating Indian politics for the next 20 years. The party's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, led the Congress to support socialist policies by creating the Planning Committee, introducing Five-Year Plans, implementing a mixed economy, and establishing a secular state. After Nehru's death and the short tenure of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi became the leader of the party. In the 17 general elections since independence, it has won an outright majority on seven occasions and has led the ruling coalition a further three times, heading the central government for more than 54 years. There have been six Prime Ministers from the Congress party, the first being Nehru (1947–1964), and the most recent Manmohan Singh (2004–2014).