Features of Political Parties in India, Political Parties in India, About Indian Politics

Features of Political Parties in India[edit]

As compared to other democratic countries India has a large number of political parties, it has been estimated that over 200 parties were formed after India became independent in 1947.^[3]
One feature of the political parties in India is that the parties are generally woven around their leaders, the leaders actively playing a dominant role, the role of leadership can be transferred and tends to take dynastic route. Such parties include both national and regional parties, parties such as Indian National Congress(INC) has been led by Nehru-Gandhi dynasty since independence, starting from Jawaharlal Nehru who dominated the INC and led it to victory in three consecutive elections, then after a brief period his daughter Indira Gandhi became prime minister, after the split in INC in 1969 she formed her own party Indian National congress (requisition) and remained the leader of the party until her death in 1984, when her son Rajiv Gandhi took the reigns and after his death his widow Sonia Gandhi, the current leader of INC took command.^[4] As a result of such dominance, the leaders of political parties of the country tend to take an autocratic tone.
One other major feature of the political parties is that, except the communist parties, most of the political parties of India lack an ideological basis. Instead political parties in India are formed on the basis of race, religion, language, caste etc. factors, thus the high number of political parties.^[3]

Types of Political Parties[edit]

Main article: List of recognised political parties in India

There are two types of political parties in India - National Party and Regional/State party. Every political party must bear a symbol and must be registered with the Election Commission of India.
In the current amendment to the Symbols Order, the Commission, has infused the following five principles, which, in its view, should govern the polity in the country, situate as it is in its present state:^[5]

1. Legislative presence is a must for recognition as a National or State party.
2. For a National party, it must be the legislative presence in the Lok Sabha, and, for a State party, the legislative presence must be reflected in the State Assembly.
3. In any election, a party can set up a candidate only from amongst its own members.
4. A party, that loses its recognition, shall not lose its symbol immediately, but shall be given the facility to use that symbol for some time to try and retrieve its status. [However, the grant of such facility to the party to use its symbol will not mean the extension of other facilities to it, as are available to recognised parties, like, free time on Doordarshan/AIR, free supply of copies of electoral rolls, etc.]
5. Recognition should be given to a party only on the basis of its own performance in elections and not because it is a splinter group of some other recognised party.

Criteria^[5] -

• A political party shall be eligible to be recognised as a National party if :-

1. it secures at least six percent(6%) of the valid votes polled in any four or more states, at a general election to the House of the People or, to the State Legislative Assembly; and
2. in addition, it wins at least four seats in the House of the People from any State or States.

OR it wins at least two percent (2%) seats in the House of the People (i.e., 11 seats in the existing House having 543 members), and these members are elected from at least three different States.

• Likewise, a political party shall be entitled to be recognised as a State party, if :-

1. it secures at least six percent (6%) of the valid votes polled in the State at a general election, either to the House of the People or to the Legislative Assembly of the State concerned; and
2. in addition, it wins at least two seats in the Legislative Assembly of the State concerned.

OR
it wins at least three percent (3%) of the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the State, or at least three seats in the Assembly, whichever is more.
At present there are 6 national parties and over 40 state parties.

Alliances[edit]

There are three alliances on a national level in India, competing with each other for the position of Government. The member parties work in harmony for gratifying national interests, although a party can jump ships whenever it may deem fit.
The three alliances -

• United Progressive Alliance(UPA) - Centre-Left coalition led by INC, this alliance was created after the 2004 General Elections, with the alliance forming the Government. The alliance even after losing some of its members, was reelected in 2009 General Elections with Manmohan Singh as head of the government.

• National Democratic Alliance(NDA) - Centre-Right coalition led by BJP was formed in 1998 after the elections, NDA formed the government although the government didn't last long as AIADMK withdrew support from it resulting in 1999 general elections, in which NDA won and resumed power. The coalition government went on to complete the full five years term, becoming the first non-Congress government to do so. In the 2014 General Elections NDA once again returned to power for the second time, with a historic mandate of 336 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. BJP itself won 282 seats thereby electing Narendra Modi as the head of the government.

• Third front - The coalition of parties which do not belong to any of the above camps due to certain issues. One of the major parties in the alliance CPI(M), prior to 2009 General Elections was a member party of the UPA. The alliance has no official leading party.

Local governance[edit]

Main article: Panchayati Raj

On April 24, 1993, the Constitutional (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions. This Act was extended to Panchayats in the tribal areas of eight States, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan from 24 December 1996.
The Act aims to provide 3-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all States having population of over 2 million, to hold Panchayat elections regularly every 5 years, to provide reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Women, to appoint State Finance Commission to make recommendations as regards the financial powers of the Panchayats and to constitute District Planning Committee to prepare draft development plan for the district.