After the death of Alparslan Türkeş in May 1997,
an Extraordinary Congress was held, in which Bahçeli contested Alparslan's son
Tuğrul Türkeş for the chairmanship. In the following hours of the congress, all candidates except Türkeş withdrew from the candidacy in favor of Bahçeli. However the congress was postponed due to a fight between the two nationalists and their supporters. At another extraordinary congress held in July, Devlet Bahçeli won the run-off election against Tuğrul Türkeş and was elected the new chairman of the MHP.
Deputy prime minister 25 March 2014 With a new leader, the MHP increased its vote share from 8.18% to 17.98% in the
1999 election, its highest vote rate in its history and became the second largest party. Devlet Bahçeli served as a
deputy prime minister in the subsequent
coalition government (
DSP-
Motherland-MHP) of
Bülent Ecevit. Bahçeli announced on 7 July 2002 of his withdrawal of support for the government, calling for new elections to be held on 3 November, and campaigned for fixing Turkey's economy in the lead up to the general election. However, the MHP was expelled from parliament for not passing the 10%
electoral threshold in the
2002 election, polling 8%. Bahçeli resigned his chairmanship, announcing "I am the only one responsible for the failure", but was reelected in the party's 2003 congress in a competition between Ramiz Ongun,
Koray Aydın, and Aytekin Yıldırım.
Opposition Bahçeli was again re-elected as the MHP chairman in a congress held on 19 November 2006. In the
2007 general election, he and his party reentered parliament, receiving 14.27% of the votes. Bahçeli campaigned in the
2011 general election promising 7% GDP growth and a change in electoral laws. The MHP's vote share decreased to 13%. Bahçeli was re-elected as the chairman in party congresses held in 2012 and 2015. The slogan of the election campaign used by the MHP for the
June 2015 general election was "Bizimle yürü Türkiye!" (Walk with us, Turkey!) The party increased their vote more than 3%, bringing it to 16.29%. The election produced a hung parliament, so the
AKP, CHP, MHP, and
HDP parties engaged in coalition talks. The CHP leader
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu offered Bahçeli the premiership for a CHP-MHP minority government, but he ruled out the offer. He instead called on the CHP and the AKP to form a grand coalition, and that he should become main opposition leader. When the CHP negotiations failed with the AKP, President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called another election. When campaigning for the election held on
1 November 2015, the MHP's position faltered and it received less than 12% of the votes.
MHP congress controversy (2015–2017) Following MHP's defeat in the 2015 election, high ranking party members demanded Bahçeli's resignation as chairman. When he refused, 547 delegates put forward their demands to convene an extraordinary congress. Important names such as
Meral Akşener,
Sinan Oğan, and
Koray Aydın called for a congress and announced that they were candidates for the chairmanship, however Bahçeli rejected the calls for an extraordinary congress and announced 18 March 2018 as the date of a regular congress. A lawsuit was filed by Bahçeli's opposition on the grounds that their demands were not met and that the party be taken to an extraordinary congress. The party leadership requested the
Constitutional Court to make a decision. The
6th Extraordinary Grand Congress of the MHP convened on 19 June 2016 with the participation of six candidates who declared their candidacy against Bahçeli. In the congress, which was officially a bylaws convention, it was confirmed that a number of amendments to the party's charter had been decided on, even though the headquarters claimed otherwise. With the amendment proposals accepted in the congress, 13 articles in the party bylaws were renewed. Among the amendments, an article in the MHP's charter which prevented the election of chairmen in extraordinary congresses was changed to allow so. However the execution of the decisions reached in the convention was stopped with the decision of the
Court of Cassation. Following this decision of the
Supreme Court of Appeals, Akşener filed a complaint with the
Supreme Election Council (YSK) for 'complete unlawfulness' regarding the rejection of the request for an extraordinary congress with elections. Names such as Meral Akşener,
Yusuf Halaçoğlu and
Ümit Özdağ were soon expelled from the MHP with the decision of the MHP Disciplinary Committee. On 25 October 2017
Good Party was founded by the MHP expellees under the leadership of Akşener.
People's Alliance Bahçeli supported President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the
2017 constitutional amendment referendum. campaigning in support of MHP mayoral candidate Hamit Tuna In 2018, an electoral alliance between the AKP and MHP called the
People's Alliance was established in preparation for that year's
general election. A law was then passed enabling political parties to form alliances in elections. Bahçeli stated that he was not running for president and that the MHP would support Erdoğan's candidacy. Erdoğan was reelected president, and the MHP received 11% of the votes and 49 deputies entered the parliament. Bahçeli congratulated Erdoğan for the victory and declared that his party had achieved a historical success. The MHP has since been giving confidence and supply to an
AKP minority government. reporter Yıldız YazıcıoğluIn the
2019 local elections, the MHP again entered the elections under the umbrella of the People's Alliance. The party did not nominate candidates for the
İstanbul,
Ankara and
İzmir mayoralties and supported the candidates nominated by the AKP, while the AKP did not nominate a candidate for mayor in
Adana,
Mersin,
Manisa,
Kırklareli and
Osmaniye. The MHP won the mayorships of
Amasya,
Kastamonu,
Kütahya,
Çankırı,
Erzincan,
Bayburt,
Bartın and
Karabük provinces. Bahçeli has been re-elected as the MHP chairman in the congresses held in 2018 and 2021. From 2–7 June 2023, due to being the oldest member, Bahçeli became the temporary speaker of the 28th Grand National Assembly.
Speeches Bahçeli's gaffes during his speeches and
malapoprisms are well-known in Turkish politics, and comparable to
Bushisms and
Chernomyrdinka. His pronunciation of the word "biscuit" once went viral . On another occasion, a speech he made during the
2009 local elections campaign, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of the MHP, became a
meme: == Political positions ==