POLITICAL PARTY AND PARTY

SYSTEM IN INDIA
By: Radha Chauhan

B.A.(Programme) Semester-II Political Science

Paper: Indian Government and Politics
Department of Political Science
SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING
University of Delhi
 MEANING OF POLITICAL PARTY AND
PARTY SYSTEM
Political Party :
A political party is an institution which consists of leaders,
followers, policies and programmes.
There are different parties. Parties can be differentiated on
the bases of leaders, policies and programmes, ideologies
and internal functioning.
The principal feature of a political party which
distinguishes it from other organizations is that its main
purpose is to capture power and contest elections.
Political parties are the important links between
individuals, state and society
In modern democratic states, there are four
types of political parties

Reactionary parties which cling to the old socio-

economic and political institutions
Conservative parties that believe in status-quo.
Liberal parties that aim to change and reform the
existing institutions.
Radical parties which aim at establishing a new order
by overthrowing the existing institutions
Political parties are also classified as per the
ideologies. Political scientists have placed radical
parties on the left, liberal parties in the centre and
reactionary and conservative parties on the right.

In India, CPI and CPM are examples of leftist parties,

Congress of centrist parties and the BJP is an example
of rightist parties.
Recognition of National and State Parties
The Election Commission registers political parties for the
purpose of elections and grants them recognition as
national or state parties on the basis of their poll
performance. The other parties are simply declared as
registered-unrecognised parties.
The recognition granted by the Commission to the parties
determines their right to certain privileges like allocation of
the party symbols, provision of time for political broadcasts
on the state-owned television and radio stations and access
to electoral rolls
Every national party is allotted a symbol exclusively
reserved for its use throughout the country.
Similarly, every state party is allotted a symbol exclusively
reserved for its use in the states in which it is so recognised.
The conditions for recognition as National Party and
State Party are as follows:

National Party:

If it secures 6 % of valid votes polled in nay our or

more states at a general election to the Lok Sabha or to
the legislative assembly and in addition it wins four
seats in the Lok Sabha from any states
If a party wins 2% of seats in the Lok Sabha at a
general election and these candidates are elected from
three states. An additional criteria includes if the party
is recognised as a state party in four states.
State Party:

If the party secures 6% of the valid votes polled in the state at a
general election to the legislative assembly of the state concerned
and in addition wins 2 seats in the assembly of the state concerned.
The state party secures 6% of the valid votes polled in the state at a
general election to the Lok Sabha from the state concerned. In
addition if it wins 1 seat in the Lok Sabha from the state concerned.
If it wins 3% of the seats in the legislative assembly at a general
election to the legislative assembly of the state concerned or 3 seats
in the assembly, whichever is more.
If it wins 1 seat in the Lok Sabha for every 25 seats or any fraction
thereof allotted to the state at a general electron to the Lok Sabha
from the concerned states
If the state party secures 8% of the total valid votes polled in the
state at a General Elections to the Lok Sabha from the state or to the
legislative assembly of the state. The condition was added in 2011.
As per latest publication dated 23 September 2021
from Election Commission of India,

the total number of parties registered was 2858,

with 8 national parties,
54 state parties.
Party System

A party system is a concept in comparative political science

concerning the system of government by political parties in
a democratic country.

The meaning of party system is related to number of

political parties in a country.

Based on the numbers of parties present in political system,

party systems generally can be categorized as single party
system, two-party system or multiparty system.

The most common way to identify party systems in India

generally is the level of performance of parties in elections
and their presence in the governments.
The most common way to identify party systems in
India generally is the level of performance of parties in
elections and their presence in the governments.

Presence of more than one party is a feature of a

democratic and plural society.

Presence of several parties has been an important

aspect of party system in India.

However, number of party systems changed in India

since the 1950s.
Characteristics of Party System in India
Multi-Party System: The continental size of the, the diversified
characteristics of the Indian society, the adoption of universal adult
franchise, the peculiar type of political processes have given rise to a
large number of political parties. In fact, India has the largest number
of political parties in the world.Further, India has all categories of
parties – left parties, centrist parties, right parties and so on.
Consequently the hung Parliaments, hung assemblies and coalition
governments have become a common phenomenon in Indian politics.

One-Dominant Party Systems: In spite of the multiparty system,

the political scene in India was dominated for a long period by the
Congress. Hence, Rajni Kothari, an eminent political analyst,
preferred to call the Indian party system as ‘one party dominance
system’ or the ‘Congress System’.The dominant position enjoyed by
the  Congress has been on the decline since 1967 with the rise of
regional parties and other national parties like the Janata Dal and
BJP.
Lack of Clear Ideology: Except the BJP, the  CPI and CPM, all
other parties do not have a clear-cut ideology. They (i.e., all other
aeries) are ideologically closer to each other. They have a close
resemblance in their policies and programmes. Almost every party
advocates democracy, secularism, socialism and Gandhism.
Moreover, every party , including the so-called ideological parties, is
guided by only one consideration – power capture. Thus, politics has
become issue-based rather than ideology and pragmatism has
replaced the commitment of its principles.

Personality Cult: Quite often, the parties are organised around an

eminent leader who becomes more important than the party and its
ideology. Parties are known by their leaders and their ideology.
Parties  are known by their leaders rather than by their manifesto. It
is a fact that the popularity of the Congress was mainly due to the
leadership of Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It is the same
case for the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and TDP in Andhra Pradesh 
which got recognition with MG Ramachandran and NT Rama Rao
respectively.
Based on Traditional Factors: In the western counties, the
political parties are formed on the basis of socio-economic and
political programmes. On the other hand, a large number of
parties in India are formed on the basis of religion, caste,
language, culture and so on. For example, Shiv Sena, Muslim
League, Hindu Maha Sabha and so on. These parties work for
the promotion of communal and sectional interests that
undermine the general public interest.

Emergence of Regional  Parties: Another significant feature

of the Indian party system is the emergence of a large number
of regional parties and their growing role. They have become
the ruling parties in various states like BJD in Orissa, DMK or
AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, Akali Dal in Punjab and so on. In the
beginning, they were confined to regional politics only. But of
late they have come to play a significant role in the national
politics due to coalition governments at the Centre.
Faction and Defections: Factionalism, defections , splits,
mergers, polarisation and so on have been an important aspect
of the functioning political parties in India. Lust for power
and materialistic conditions have made political parties leave
their party and join another party.The practice of defections
gained greater currency after the fourth general elections in
1967. This phenomenon caused instability both at the Centre
and in the states and led to disintegration of the parties.

Lack of Effective Opposition: An effective Opposition is

very essential for the successful operation of the
parliamentary democracy prevalent in India. It checks the
autocratic tendencies of the ruling party and provides an
alternative government. However, in the last 50 years an
effective, strong, organised and visible national Opposition
could never emerge except in flashes.
EVOLUTION OF PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEM IN INDIA
One Party Dominance System:

For around two decades, the party system in India was

dominated by Congress party. Although several non-
Congress parties had existed at that time, it was the
Congress which headed government not only at the centre
but in most of the states.
Thus, the non-Congress parties were opposition parties at
the centre and in states, except in Kerala where the CPI was
a ruling party for some years in the late 1950s.

Since the Congress was single party having support in most

states of the country, Rajni Kothari conceptualised the party
system of this period as an era of One-party dominance.
Bi-polar and Two-party system
India does not have two-party system in ideal sense of the term.
Rather, it has bipolar political system. In this system, three or more
parties come together to form pre-election or post-election alliance, form
a coalition government and/or adopt a common minimum programme.
Such alliances generally occur around two major parties, which work as
competing polls or alliance.
As there are two poles of such alliances, the party system in such
alliance is called bi-polar party system.
Its first major example was formation of non-Congress SVD
governments in eight states in India following Congress’s defeat in 1967
elections.
There were two poles in such bi-polar system: On the one hand pole was
the Congress party and on the other it was a group of non-Congress
parties such as Bhartiya Kranti Dal, the Samyukta Socialist party, Praja
Socialist party and Jana Sangh. Its first example at national level was
associated with the formation of the Janata Party government following
Janata Party’s victory in 1977 Lok Sabha election
Multi-Party and Multi-Polar Party System:
Since 1967 elections, Indian political system has undergone changes.
The Congress’s defeat in the elections and split in it weakened the party.
This happened with the simultaneous rise of regional parties.
It marked the rise of multiple parties in India. Although multiple parties
had existed during the era of Congress’s dominance, in comparison to
the Congress, they played marginal role in Indian politics.
Emergence of multiple parties in several states was result of changes
which had occurred in the society.
These leaders formed regional political parties. Rise of leaders such as
Charan Singh in UP, Rao Virendra Singh in Haryana, Biju Patnaik in
Odisha, Bal Thakre in Maharashtra in the 1960s and 1970s who formed
regional parties are some of the early examples marking multiplication
of political parties in India. Their number further multiplied in coming
decades. The rise of BSP and SP in north India, TMC in West Bengal
and BJP in Odisha in the 1980s and 1990s, and several such examples
show presence of multiparty system in India
POLITICAL PARTIES, PARTY SYSTEM
AND DEMOCRACY IN INDIA
Political parties and democracy are closely related.
This relationship is reflected in various indicators of
democracy: people’s participation in decision-making, their
political mobilization, generating political consciousness
among them, articulation of their issues and providing a
vision to meet their needs.
Peoples participate in decision-making process of the
government through political parties.
And political parties do so by fielding candidates in elections.
Thus, political parties and the candidates fielded by them
become channel through which people participate in decision-
making process.
These candidates represent people as members of Parliament
or the state legislature.
Political parties are practical devices which enable
peoples’ participation in decision-making.
It is not possible for everybody to directly participate
in elections because of large number of population.
They do so indirectly by electing candidates in
elections who are given tickets by political parties.
Apart from the candidates from political parties,
people can even elect their representatives the
candidates who do not belong to political parties.
Such candidates are known as independent candidates.