Nature of Party System in India

1. Registration of political parties

Registration is mandatory for a party, following which it can avail the provisions of the Representation of
the People Act, 1951. Presently, India has over 1,600 registered political parties and 400 of them were
formed within the last five years. Registration of political parties is governed by the provisions of Section
29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. A new political party has to submit an application to
the Commission within a period of 30 days following the date of its formation where as an already
existing party can do the same in 60 days.

2. Three types of Political parties in India

India has multi-party system with recognition accorded to national and state and district level parties. The
status is reviewed periodically by the Election Commission of India. A recognized party enjoys privileges
like a reserved party symbol, free broadcast time on state run television and radio, a consultation in
setting of election dates and giving input in setting electoral rules and regulations.

(i) Recognized National Political Party

At present there are eight national political parties. The National People's Party is the latest
entrant to the list. It was founded by P A Sangma after his expulsion from the NCP in July 2012,
though its influence is mostly concentrated in the state of Meghalaya, it was accorded national
party status on 7 June 2019. It is the first political party from Northeastern India to have attained
this status. Others being INC, BJP, BSP, TMC, CPI, CPI(M), NCP.

A registered party is recognized as a national party only if it fulfils any one of the following three
conditions:

1. A party should win 2% of seats in the Lok Sabha from at least three different states. (11 seats at
present)
2. At a general election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party polls 6% of votes in any
four or more states and in addition it wins four Lok Sabha seats.
3. A party gets recognition as a state party in four states.
 (ii) Recognized State Political Party

A party has to fulfill any of the following conditions for recognition as a state party:

1. A party should win minimum three percent of the total number of seats or a minimum of three
seats in the Legislative Assembly.
2. A party should win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha for every 25 seats or any fraction thereof
allotted to that State.
3. A party should secure at least six percent of the total valid votes polled during general election to
a Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assembly and should, in addition, win at least one Lok Sabha,
and two Legislative Assembly seats in that election,
4. Under the liberalized criteria, one more clause that it will be eligible for recognition as state party
if it secures 8% or more of the total valid votes polled in the state

(iii) Unrecognized political parties

As per the latest publication by the election commission of India, the total number of parties
registered with it are 2599, with 8 national political parties, 53 state political parties and 2538 as
unrecognized political parties. Such parties have a right to contest elections but do not have
reserved Electoral symbols. They are given the same at the time of the elections only.

4. Multiparty system in India

As per the latest publication by the election commission of India, the total number of parties registered
with it are 2599, with 8 national political parties, 53 state political parties and 2538 as unrecognized
political parties

5. End of Single party dominance

The Congress system emerged after the country had attained independence. From 1947 to 1967 and from
1971 to 1977 as well as from 1980 to 1989, this system was at the centre of Indian Politics Thus, the
Congress, which functioned as broad-based nationalist movement before independence, transformed itself
into the dominant political party of the nation. That is why the observers of Indian politics like Morris
Jones described the Indian Party system as a system of “one party dominance”. But the elections held in
1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 for the 9th,10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabha bear
testimony to the fact that the single party dominance has come to an end. But the elections to the 16 th and
17th Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019 respectively have shown the emergence of BJP as the major actor.
 6. Lack of Strong Opposition:

India lacks a strong well-organized opposition party which is essential for the success of parliamentary
democracy. The main function of the opposition is to keep a hawk’s eye on the working of the
government and highlight the shortcomings of the government and in order to compel it to became
accountable to the people. But India always had the misfortune of not having a substantial opposition
party. Opposition had remained quite weak since Congress dominated the scene of Indian politics from
1947 to 1967 and from 1971 to 1977 as well as from 1980 to 1989. Even after 1989, the opposition has
always remained weak. In the 16th and 17th Lok Sabha, no single party including congress could fulfill the
criteria of having 10% of the total membership of the house.

7. Personality Cult:
Indian Party system values the role of the leader. When a party ceases to have a charismatic leader, it
starts declining. After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Congress suffered
adversely. Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee’s death caused irreparable loss to the Jan Sangh. Similarly Dr.
Ram Manohar Lohia and C. Rajagopalachari witnessed very fast decline of the socialist forces and
Swatantra Party respectively. National political parties like BJP,TMC are identifiable with their iconic
leaders like Mr. Narender Modi, Ms. Mamata Banerjee. On the other hand regional parties like AIADMK,
DMK, SAD etc are identifiable with their leaders like Late Jayalalitha, Late Karunanidhi and S. Prakash
S. Badal. People inadvertently not vote for the party or its performance but for their leaders.

8. Lack of Ideological Commitment:

In India politics has become issue oriented rather than based on ideology. The existence of the National
Front Government at the Centre was an example of issue oriented politics which got support from the
extreme left CPI (M) to the extreme right (BJP). Since 1971, elections have been won not on the basis of
the inherent strength of the ideology of a political party but on the basis of issue of immediate concern to
the electorate. BJP maintains its ties with RSS, Hindu Maha Sabha overlooking its commitment to
secularism and democracy. The United Front government of 1996 was a glaring example of overlooking
ideological commitments in order to keep BJP at bay and grab power.

9. Emergence of Regional Parties:

In India, several all-India parties have suffered in strength and regional parties have grown in number and
influence. Thus, Tamil Nadu has become a stronghold of the DMK followed by the ADMK; the Punjab is
dominated by the Akali Dal; Assam has been ruled by the AGP; Jammu & Kashmir is governed by the
National Conference and Shiv Sena has emerged a powerful force in Maharashtra politics.

10. Communal and Caste based character of political parties:

Indian politicians form political parties on the basis of caste and religion knowing very well that the
public gets swayed by religious sentiments. Political parties deliberately field candidates on the basis of
caste and religion especially in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka etc

11. The Use of Extra-Constitutional Means to Power:

Political parties use constitutional methods like organizing rallies, formulating public opinion in their
favour through press and media, but alongside they also use.non- parliamentary means as civil
disobedience, mass demonstrations, strikes and protest rallies to embarrass the party in power and some
of these tactics may become violent and cause loss of life and property.

12. Politics of Defection and Anti-Defection Act

In 1967, after the Haryana Assembly poll, Congress MLA performed a miracle by jumping parties thrice
in a fortnight. At first, he shifted from Congress to Janata Dal, and within a day, he joined Congress
again. This unprecedented politics of defection by Ram was not very common back then, thereby, raised
the eyebrows of the politicians. The defection politics of Ram not only helped him to be on the side of the
ruling regime but also led to the inception of the phrase "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" which summarized the
politics of defection in India. Defection was further popularized when many legislators defected from
Congress and joined Janata Party in 1977. The situation was reversed in 1980 when congress under Indira
came back to power. Now Janata party legislators defected to congress.it still continues despite the
regulation by our government. The Anti-Defection Law was passed in 1985 through
the 52nd Amendment to the Constitution, which added the Tenth Schedule to the Indian Constitution.
The main intent of the law was to combat “the evil of political defections”. It lays down the process by
which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature
based on a petition by any other member of the House. A legislator is deemed to have defected if he
either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership
on a vote. This implies that a legislator defying (abstaining or voting against) the party whip on any issue
can lose his membership of the House. The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
Furthermore we had 91st Amendment Act in 2003 Earlier, a ‘defection’ by one-third of the elected
members of a political party was considered a ‘merger’. Now two thirds is permissible.