Nagpur | Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday credited the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and efforts of stalwarts like Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee for helping the BJP become the largest political party in the world.

The BJP was founded on April 6, 1980 by leaders of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a party which had merged with other opposition parties to form the Janata Party to take on the Congress in the post-Emergency 1977 polls.

The BJP won only two Lok Sabha seats in the first national election it fought in 1984. However, it rose rapidly later under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, coming to power in the 90s as the head of a coalition, before Modi led the party to its maiden majority in 2014. The party has been in power at the Centre since then.

Fadnavis was speaking after Union minister Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone of the BJP's new office in Nagpur.

The CM said it feels like "the foundation stone laying ceremony of our own house".

"Due to the efforts of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP has become the largest party in the world," Fadnavis said.

He contributed Rs 5 lakh for the new BJP office and requested all the party workers to contribute as per their capacity.