SWAMI VIVEKANAND SUBHARTI UNIVERSITY,

MEERUT, U.P.

SUBJECT: LEGAL ENGLISH

PROJECT ON; POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDIA

SUBMITTED TO:

Associate Professor: - Dr. Rafat khanam

SUBMITTED BY:

Nikhil Lubana

B.A. LL.B 1st SEMESTER

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PROJECT ON; POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDIA
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to give special thanks to Assoiate Professor. Dr. Rafat khanam who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this project on this case which helped me in
doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many new things I am really
thankful to her. Secondly I would like to thanks my parents and friend who helped
me a lot in finalizing this project within the limited time fit.

………………………

Nikhil Lubana
B.A. LL.B.

1st SEMESTER

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. FUNCTIONS

3. NATIONAL PARTIES

4. STATE PARTIES

5. HOW CAN PARTIES BE REFORMED?

6. . CONCLUSION

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 INTRODUCTION

We noticed the role of political parties in the rise of democracies, in the formation of
constitutional designs, in electoral politics and in the making and working of governments.
In this textbook, we have glanced at political parties as vehicles of federal sharing of
political power and as negotiators of social divisions in the arena of democratic politics.
Before concluding this tour, let us take a close look at the nature and working of political
parties, especially in our country. We begin by asking two common questions: Why do we
need parties? How many parties are good for a democracy? In the light of these, we
introduce the national and regional political parties in today’s India and then look at what is
wrong with political parties and what can be done about it.

WHY DO WE NEED POLITICAL PARTIES?

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Political parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy. For most
ordinary citizens, democracy is equal to political parties. If you travel to remote parts of
our country and speak to the less educated citizens, you could come across people who
may not know anything about our Constitution or about the nature of our government. But
chances are that they would know something about our political parties.At the same time
this visibility does not mean popularity. Most people tend to be very critical of political
parties. They tend to blame parties for all that is wrong with our democracy and our
political life. Parties have become identified with social and political divisions. Therefore,
it is natural to ask – do we need political parties at all? About hundred years ago there were
few countries of the world that had any political party. Now there are few that do not have
parties. Why did political parties become so omnipresent in democracies all over the
world? Let us first answer what political parties are and what they do, before we say why
we need them.

MEANING

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 programmes for the society
with a view to promote the collective good. Since there can be different views on what is
good for all, parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others. They
seek to implement these policies by winning popular support through elections. Thus,
parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. Parties are about a part of the
society and thus involve PARTISANSHIP. Thus a party is known by which part it stands
for, which policies it supports and whose interests it upholds. A political party has three
components:

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 FUNCTIONS

What does a political party do? Basically, political parties fill political offices and exercise
political power. Parties do so by performing a series of functions: 1 Parties contest
elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by
political parties. Parties select their candidates in different ways. In some countries, such as
the USA, members and supporters of a party choose its candidates. Now more and more
countries are following this method. In other countries like India, top party leaders choose
candidates for contesting elections.

2. Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from
them. Each of us may have different opinions and views on what policies are suitable for
the society. But no government can handle such a large variety of views. In a democracy, a
large number of similar opinions have to be grouped together to provide a direction in
which policies can be formulated by the governments. This is what the parties do. A party
reduces a vast multitude of opinions intoa few basic positions which it supports. A
government is expected to base its policies on the line taken by the RULING PARTY.

3. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are debated
and passed in the legislature. But since most of the members belong to a party, they go by
the direction of the party leadership, irrespective of their personal opinions.

4. Parties form and run governments. As we noted last year, the big policy decisions are
taken by political executive that comes from the political parties. Parties recruit leaders,
train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.

5. Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in
power, by voicing different views and criticising government for its failures or wrong
policies. Opposition parties also mobilise opposition to the government.

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6. Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties have lakhs of
members and activists spread all over the country. Many of the pressure groups are the
extensions of political parties among different sections of society. Parties sometimes also
launch movements for the resolution of problems faced by people. Often opinions in the
society crystallise on the lines parties take.

7. Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes

implemented by governments. For an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party
leader than a government officer. That is why, they feel close to parties even when they do
not fully trust them. Parties have to be responsive to people’s needs and demands.
Otherwise people can reject those parties in the next elections.

Necessity

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This list of functions in a sense answers the question asked above: we need political parties
because they perform all these functions. But we still need to ask why modern democracies
cannot exist without political parties. We can understand the necessity of political parties
by imagining a situation without parties. Every candidate in the elections will be
independent. So no one will be able to make any promises to the people about any major
policy changes.

The government may be formed, but its utility will remain ever uncertain. Elected
representatives will be accountable to their constituency for what they do in the locality.
But no one will be responsible for how the country will be run. We can also think about it
by looking at the non-party based elections to the panchayat in many states. Although, the
parties do not contest formally, it is generally noticed that the village gets split into more
than one faction, each of which puts up a ‘panel’ of its candidates. This is exactly what the
party does. That is the reason we find political parties in almost all countries of the world,
whether these countries are big or small, old or new, developed or developing.

The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative

democracies. As we have seen, large societies need representative democracy. As societies
became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather different views on
various issues and to present these to the government. They needed some ways, to bring
various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed. They
needed a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, justify or oppose
them. Political parties fulfill these needs that every representative government has. We can
say that parties are a necessary condition for a democracy.

Popular in political parties participation

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It is often said that political parties are facing a crisis because they are very unpopular and
the citizens are indifferent to political parties. The available evidence shows that this belief
is only partly true for India. The evidence, based on a series of large sample surveys
conducted over several decades, shows that: l Political parties do not enjoy much trust
among the people in South Asia. The proportion of those who say their trust in political
parties is ‘not much’ or ‘not at all’ is more than those who have ‘some’ or ‘great’ trust. l
The same is true of most other democracies as well. Political parties are one of the least
trusted institutions all over the world. l Yet the level of participation in the activities of
political parties was fairly high. The proportion of those who said they were members of
some political party was higher in India than many advanced countries like Canada, Japan,
Spain and South Korea.

Over the last three decades the proportion of those who report to be members of political
parties in India has gone up steadily. l The proportion of those who say they feel ‘close to a
political party’ has also gone up in India in this period.

NATIONAL PARTIES

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Democracies that follow a federal system all over the world tend to have two kinds of
political parties: parties that are present in only one of the federal units and parties that are
present in several or all units of the federation. This is the case in India as well. There are
some countrywide parties, which are called ‘national parties’. These parties have their units
in various states. But by and large, all these units follow the same policies, programmes
and strategy that is decided at the national level. Every party in the country has to register
with the Election Commission. While the Commission treats all parties equally, it offers
some special facilities to large and established parties. These parties are given a unique
symbol – only the official candidates of that party can use that election symbol. Parties that
get this privilege and some other special facilities are ‘recognised’ by the Election
Commission for this purpose. That is why these parties are called, ‘recognised political
parties’. The Election Commission has laid down detailed criteria of the proportion of
votes and seats that a party must get in order to be a recognised party. A party that secures
at least six per cent of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a State
and wins at least two seats is recognised as a State party. A party that secures at least six
per cent of the total votes in Lok Sabha elections or Assembly elections in four States and
wins at least four seats in the Lok Sabha is recognised as a national party. According to this
classification, there were seven recognised national parties in the country in 2018. Let us
learn something about each of these parties.

All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) :

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Launched on 1 January 1998 under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. Recognised as a
national party in 2016. The party’s symbol is flowers and grass. Committed to secularism
and federalism. Has been in power in West Bengal since 2011. Also has a presence in
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura. In the General Elections held in 2019, it got 4.07
per cent votes and won 22 seats, making it the fourth largest party in the Lok Sabha.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP):

Formed in 1984 under the leadership of Kanshi Ram. Seeks to represent and secure power
for the bahujan samaj which includes the dalits, adivasis, OBCs and religious minorities.
Draws inspiration from the ideas and teachings of Sahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule, Periyar
Ramaswami Naicker and Babasaheb Ambedkar. Stands for the cause of securing the
interests and welfare of the dalits and oppressed people. It has its main base in the state of
Uttar Pradesh and substantial presence in neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Punjab. Formed government in Uttar Pradesh several
times by taking the support of different parties at different times. In the Lok Sabha
elections held in 2019, it polled about 3.63 per cent votes and secured 10 seats in the
loksabha.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP):

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Founded in 1980 by reviving the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed by Syama Prasad
Mukherjee in 1951. Wants to build a strong and modern India by drawing inspiration from
India’s ancient culture and values; and Deendayal Upadhyaya’s ideas of integral humanism
and Antyodaya. Cultural nationalism (or ‘Hindutva’) is an important element in its
conception of Indian nationhood and politics. Wants full territorial and political integration
of Jammu and Kashmir with India, a uniform civil code for all people living in the country
irrespective of religion, and ban on religious conversions. Its support base increased
substantially in the 1990s. Earlier limited to north and west and to urban areas, the party
expanded its support in the south, east, the north-east and to rural areas. Came to power in
1998 as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) including several regional
parties. Emerged as the largest party with 303 members in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Currently leads the ruling NDA government at the Centre.

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (CPI):

Formed in 1925. Believes in Marxism-Leninism, secularism and democracy. Opposed to

the forces of secessionism and communalism. Accepts parliamentary democracy as a
means of promoting the interests of the working class, farmers and the poor. Became weak
after the split in the party in 1964 that led to the formation of the CPI(M). Significant
presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Its
support base had gradually declined over the years. It secured less than 1 per cent votes and
2 seat s in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Advocates the coming together of all left parties
to build a strong left front.

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA - MARXIST (CPI-M):

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Founded in 1964. Believes in Marxism Leninism. Supports socialism, secularism and
democracy and opposes imperialism and communalism. Accepts democratic elections as a
useful and helpful means for securing the objective of socioeconomic justice in India.
Enjoys strong support in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, especially among the poor,
factory workers, farmers, agricultural labourers and the intelligentsia. Critical of the new
economic policies that allow free flow of foreign capital and goods into the country. Was
in power in West Bengal without a break for 34 years. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it
won about 1.75 per cent of votes and 3 seats.

INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (INC):

Popularly known as the Congress Party. One of the oldest parties of the world. Founded in
1885 and has experienced many splits. Played a dominant role in Indian politics at the
national and state level for several decades after India’s Independence. Under the
leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, the party sought to build a modern secular democratic
republic in India. Ruling party at the centre till 1977 and then from 1980 to 1989. After
1989, its support declined, but it continues to be present throughout the country, cutting
across social divisions. A centrist party (neither rightist nor leftist) in its ideological
orientation, the party espouses secularism and welfare of weaker sections and minorities.
The INC supports new economic reforms but with a human face. Leader of the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from 2004 to 2019. In the 2019 Lok Sabha
election it won 52 seats.

NATIONALIST CONGRESS PARTY (NCP):

Formed in 1999 following a split in the Congress party. Espouses democracy, Gandhian
secularism, equity, social justice and federalism. Wants that high offices in government be

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confined to natural born citizens of the country. A major party in Maharashtra and has a
significant presence in Meghalaya, Manipur and Assam. A coalition partner in the state of
Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress. Since 2004, a member of the United
Progressive Alliance.

STATE PARTIES

Other than these seven parties, most of the major parties of the country are classified by the
Election Commission as ‘State parties’. These are commonly referred to as regional parties.
Yet these parties need not be regional in their ideology or outlook. Some of these parties
are all India parties that happen to have succeeded only in some states. Parties like the
Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal have national level political organisation with
units in several states. Some of these parties like Biju Janata Dal, Sikkim Democratic
Front, Mizo National Front and Telangana Rashtra Samithi are conscious about their State
identity.

CHALLENGES TO POLITICAL PARTIES

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The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. All over the world there is
a tendency in political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at
the top. Parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organisational 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

The second challenge of dynastic succession is related to the first one. Since most political
parties do not practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning, there are very
few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party. Those who happen to be the
leaders are in a position of unfair advantage to favour people close to them or even their
family members. In many parties, the top positions are always controlled by members of
one family

The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in parties,
especially during elections. Since parties are focussed only on winning elections, they tend
to use short-cuts 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 have
influence on 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.

The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice
to the voters. In order to offer meaningful choice, parties must be significantly different. In
recent years there has been a decline in the ideological differences among parties in most
parts of the world.

HOW CAN PARTIES BE REFORMED?

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In order to face these challenges, political parties need to be reformed. The question is: Are
political parties willing to reform? If they are willing, what has prevented them from
reforming so far? If they are not willing, is it possible to force them to reform? Citizens all
over the world face this question. This is not a simple question to answer. In a democracy,
the final decision is made by leaders who represent political parties. People can replace
them, but only by another set of party leaders. If all of them do not wish to reform, how can
anyone force them to change? Let us look at some of the recent efforts and suggestions in
our country to reform political parties and its leaders:

The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs MP changes parties, he or she
will lose the seat in the legislature. This new law has helped bring defection down. At the
same time this has made any dissent even more difficult. MPs and MLAs have to accept
whatever the party leaders decide.

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 him. The new system has
made a lot of information available to the public. But there is no system of check if the
information given by the candidates is true. As yet we do not know if it has led to decline
in the influence of the rich and the criminals.

The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to
hold their organisational elections and file their income tax returns. The parties have started
doing so but sometimes it is mere formality. It is no clear if this step has led to greater
internal democracy in political parties. Besides these, many suggestions are often made to
reform political parties:

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 its members, to follow its own
constitution, to have an independent authority, to act as a judge in case of party disputes, to
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hold open elections to the highest posts. l It should be made mandatory for political parties
to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to women candidates. Similarly,
there should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies of the party.

CONCLUSION

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Political parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy. For most
ordinary citizens, democracy is equal to political parties. If you travel to remote parts of
our country and speak to the less educated citizens, you could come across people who
may not know anything about our Constitution or about the nature of our government. But
chances are that they would know something about our political parties.At the same time
this visibility does not mean popularity. Most people tend to be very critical of political
parties. The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties
to hold their organisational elections and file their income tax returns. The parties have
started doing so but sometimes it is mere formality. It is no clear if this step has led to
greater internal democracy in political parties. Besides these, many suggestions are often
made to reform political parties: 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
its members, to follow its own constitution, to have an independent authority, to act as a
judge in case of party disputes, to hold open elections to the highest posts. l It should be
made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third,
to women candidates. Similarly, there should be a quota for women in the decision making
bodies of the party.

BIBLOGRAPHY

NCERT BOOK
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PROJECT ON; POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDIA
www.google.com

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