Political Parties

Table of Contents
 Why do we need political parties?
 Meaning
 Functions
 Necessity
 How many parties should we have?
 National parties
 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP):
 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
 Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M)
 Indian National Congress (INC)
 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
 State parties
 Challenges to political parties
 How can parties be reformed?
 Important Keywords

Why do we need political parties?

Meaning
Political party: A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold
power in the government. They agree on some policies and programs for society to promote the
collective good. They try to persuade people as to why their policies are better than others and seek to
implement these policies by winning popular support through elections.

The main components of political parties are:

 The leaders
 The active members, and
 The followers.
Functions
Functions of a political party:

 Parties contest elections.

 Parties put forward different policies and programs and the voters choose from them.
 Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country.
 Parties form and run governments.
 Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by
voicing different views and criticizing the government for its failures or wrong policies.
 Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues.
 Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by
governments.
Necessity
The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracy
  As societies become large and complex, they need some agency to get different views on
various issues and to present this to the government.
 They need some way to bring various representatives together so that a responsible
government could be formed.
 They need a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, and justify or
oppose them.
 Political parties fulfill these needs that every representative government has. Thus, political
parties are a necessary condition for democracy.

How many parties should we have?

One-Party System
 Countries, where only one party is allowed to control and run the government are called one-
party systems.
 For example, in China, only the Communist Party is allowed to rule.
 A one-party system is not considered a good option in a democratic system because voters are
not offered any choice at the time of voting. This is not a democratic option. Any democratic
system must allow at least two parties to compete in elections and provide a fair chance for
the competing parties to come to power.
Two-Party System
 Countries where only two main parties contest elections are called two-party systems.
 For example - the United States of America and the United Kingdom are examples of a two-
party system.
Multi-party system
If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming
to power either on their strength or in alliance with others, we call it a multiparty system.

The multi-party system evolved in India because:

 India is blessed with tremendous social and geographical diversity. This diversity cannot be
easily accommodated by two or three political parties.
 Because of the multiparty system, a variety of interests and opinions enjoy political
representation.
All the countries of the world can't have the same party system because:
 A party system is not something any country can choose.
 It evolves over a long time depending on the nature of society, its social and regional divisions,
its history of politics, and its system of elections.
 Each country develops a party system that is conditioned by special circumstances. No system
is ideal for all countries and all situations.

National parties
National political parties are country-wide parties. They have units in various states. All these units
follow the same policies, programs, and strategy that is decided at the national level.

Conditions required to be a national political party are:

 A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in Lok Sabha elections or Assembly elections
in four states.
 Wins at least four seats in the Lok Sabha.
There were 6 recognized national parties in India in 2023.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP):

 Founded: November 26, 2012, after the 2011 anti-corruption movement.
  Ideals: Accountability, transparency, clean governance, and good governance.
 Achievements: Quickly rose to prominence in Delhi, forming a government with support from
the Indian National Congress (INC). Recently became a key political player in Gujarat as well.
 Governments Formed: Currently governs Punjab and Delhi.
 Lok Sabha: Secured one seat in the 2019 elections.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
 Founded: 1984 by Kanshi Ram.
 Ideals: Advocates for the "bahujan samaj" (majority society) which includes Dalits, Adivasis,
OBCs, and minorities. Inspired by social reformers like Ambedkar, Phule, and Periyar.
 Focus: Welfare and representation of Dalits and oppressed communities.
 Base: Primarily in Uttar Pradesh but also has a presence in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Punjab.
 Lok Sabha: Polled 3.63% of the vote share and secured 10 seats in 2019.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
 Founded: 1980, tracing its origins back to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed by Syama Prasad
Mukherjee in 1951.
 Ideals: Strong and modern India rooted in Indian culture; adheres to the idea of cultural
nationalism (Hindutva) and concepts like integral humanism and Antyodaya (upliftment of the
marginalized).
 Policies: Advocates for the complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India, a uniform
civil code, and a ban on religious conversions.
 Reach: Initially limited to northern and urban areas, now has a substantial presence across
rural, southern, and eastern India.
 Governments Formed: Leads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and currently holds
power at the Centre with 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M)

 Founded: 1964.
 Ideals: Marxism-Leninism, socialism, secularism, democracy; opposes imperialism and
communalism.
 Support Base: Strong in West Bengal, Kerala, and Tripura, particularly among poor, factory
workers, farmers, agricultural labourers and the intelligentsia.
 Policies: Critical of economic liberalization policies that encourage foreign investment and
imports.
 Governments Formed: Ruled West Bengal continuously for 34 years.
 Lok Sabha: Secured about 1.75% of the vote and won 3 seats in the 2019 elections.
Indian National Congress (INC)
 Founded: 1885, one of the oldest political parties globally.
 Ideals: Centrist, supporting secularism and the welfare of weaker sections and minorities.
 Role in History: Key player in India’s independence movement and governance post-
independence, especially under Jawaharlal Nehru.
 Policies: Embraces economic reforms with a focus on social welfare, supports the new
economic reforms with a "human face."
 Governments Formed: Led the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) from 2004 to 2019.
 Lok Sabha: Won 19.5% of the vote and 52 seats in the 2019 elections.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
 Founded: July 2013 by P.A. Sangma. NPP is the first political party from North East India to
have attained the status of a national party.
  Ideals: Focuses on recognizing regional diversity and addressing unique developmental
challenges in North Eastern India. The party’s philosophy emphasizes education, employment,
and empowerment.
 Governments Formed: Governed Meghalaya and has a growing presence across North
Eastern states.
 Lok Sabha: Secured one seat in the 2019 elections.

State parties
A regional party is a party that is present in only some states. Regional parties are commonly referred
to as ‘State parties’.

Conditions required for a party to be recognized as a regional political party are:

 A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of
a State
 Wins at least 2 seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Challenges to political parties
1. Lack of internal democracy within parties
 Parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organizational meetings, and do not
conduct internal elections regularly.
 Ordinary members of the party do not get sufficient information on what happens inside the
party.
 They do not have the means or the connections needed to influence the decisions. As a result,
the leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party.
 Since one or few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the
leadership find it difficult to continue in the party.
 More than loyalty to party principles and policies, personal loyalty to the leader becomes more
important.
2. The challenge of dynastic succession
 Most parties do not practice open and transparent procedures, hence, there are very few
opportunities for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party.
 Top leaders favor people close to them or even their family members. In many parties, the top
positions are always controlled by members of one family.
 This practice is unfair to other members of that party and is also bad for democracy since
people who do not have adequate experience or popular support come to occupy positions of
power.

3. The growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections
 Since parties are focused only on winning elections, they tend to use shortcuts to win
elections.
 They tend to nominate those candidates who have or can raise lots of money.
 Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to influence the policies and
decisions of the party.
 In some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections.
 Democrats all over the world are worried about the increasing role of rich people and big
companies in democratic politics.
4. Parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters.
 In recent years there has been a decline in the ideological differences among parties in most
parts of the world.
 They agree on more fundamental aspects but differ only in details on how policies are to be
framed and implemented.
 Those who want different policies have no option available to them.
 Sometimes people cannot even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of
leaders keeps shifting from one party to another.

How can parties be reformed?

Some of the recent efforts in India to reform political parties and their leaders are:
 The constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties. This
was done because many elected representatives were indulging in defection to become
ministers or for cash rewards. Now the law says that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he/she
will lose the seat in the legislature.
 The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals. Now, it is
mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file an affidavit giving details of his
property and criminal cases pending against them.
 The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their
organizational elections and file their income tax returns.
Suggestions to reform political parties in India:
 Regulation of party’s internal affairs: A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of
political parties. It should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of
their members, to follow their constitution, to have an independent authority, etc.
 Ensure women's participation: It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a
minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to women candidates.
 State funding: There should be state funding of elections. The government should give money
to parties to support their election expenses to avoid corruption.
 The pressure of public opinion: Political parties can be reformed if people put pressure on
them. This can be done through petitions, propaganda, and agitations. Pressure groups and
media play an important role in this.
 Public participation: Political parties can improve if those who want this join political parties.
The quality of democracy depends on the degree of public participation.

Important Keywords
A person who is strongly committed to a party, group, or faction. Partisanship
Partisan is marked by a tendency to take a side and an inability to take a balanced
view on an issue.

Changing party allegiance from the party on which a person got elected (to a
Defection
legislative body) to a different party.

A signed document submitted to an officer, where a person makes a sworn

Affidavit
statement regarding her personal information.