Understanding Political Parties and Their Functions

Welcome to the study of social science. We are discussing 6th chapter of civics political parties for class 10. Till now we have covered all the topics of this chapter. Here I am going to explain the whole chapter in one go. Our first topic is political parties. What is a political party? A political party is a group of people who come together to contact selection and hold power in the government. So political party is a group of people. Means many people come together and form a party. Like BJP and Congress, the major political parties of India. The member of these party take part in election. After winning, the party who gets majority forms the government and runs the government. Other parties play the role of opposition. They criticize the government. for its failures and wrong policies. All the members of the party agree on some policies and programs for betterment of society with a view to achieve the common interest. Our next topic is the components of a political party. A political party has three components, the leaders, the active members and the followers. The leaders, a political party consists of leaders. who contacts election and formulate policies and program of the party. Then there are number of active members in the party. They are the assistant of the leaders. These members play very important role in the promoting the policies and agenda of the party at ground level. Then there are countless followers who believe in the party ideology. Means more than the party, they connect to the ideology of the party. and support the party by voting. In short, we can say a political party is a group of people. These people come together to context election in order to hold power in the government. The primary role of the political party is to fix the political agenda and policies. The three components of political parties are the leaders, the active members and the followers. Next we have functions of political parties. Political parties perform a series of functions. First one is parties conduct elections. As we know elections are fought mainly among the candidates but the question is who choose candidates to win elections. Well in some countries such as USA members and supporters of a party choose its candidates to win elections. But some other countries like India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections. The second function is parties put forward different policies and programs and the voters choose from them. You must have seen each party at the time of election put forward different policies and programs. And the voters choose the party whose policies and programs they like and cast their votes. Third function of political parties. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Decisive means ability to make decisions. Parties play a very important role in making laws. You know laws are debated and passed in legislature. But since most of the members belong to a party, they go by the direction of the party leaders. Irrespective of their personal views. Means whatever their personal views. about the laws or policy but they always support the party. Fourth function of political party. Parties form and run government. After election, the party which wins the election forms and runs the government. They train the leaders and make them ministers. These ministers run the government the way the party wants. Means ministers work according to the party's views. The next function done by political party is those parties that lose in election play the role of opposition. As I earlier said, after election the winner party forms and runs the government. And other parties play the role of opposition. They criticize the government for its wrong policies and failures. Next function is political parties shape public opinion. Political parties raise and highlight the public problems. Sometime even they launch the movement to solve the problems faced by the people. Seventh and the last function is parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes. Government machinery means the government department officer etc. The members of the party and local leaders are usually very close to the people. And it is very easy for the people to approach the local leader than a government officer. But parties have to respond to the people's needs. Otherwise, people can reject those parties in the next election. In short, functions of political parties. First, parties conduct elections. Second, parties put forward different policies and programs, and the voters choose from them and cast their votes. Third, parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Fourth, Parties form and run government. Fifth, those parties that lose in election play the role of opposition to the parties in power. Sixth, political parties shape public opinion. Seventh, parties provide people access to government machineries and welfare schemes. Dear student, for exam point of view, this topic is very important. You must learn it. Necessity of political parties. Students, if the question is why do we need political parties, we can answer we need political parties because they perform all the seven functions we have already discussed. But if the question is why a modern democracy cannot exist without political parties, then we need to imagine a situation without political parties. What will be the situation in a country if there is no political parties? In that case, every candidate in the election will be independent. If a candidate will be independent, he would not be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes. In that case, government may be forced to make any promises to the people. But this kind of government's utility or usefulness will remain always uncertain or unstable. Because they will not have majority in their favor or control over the candidates. In this situation, elected candidates will be only responsible to their constituency or what they do in their locality. But no one will be responsible for whole country or how the country will run. Non-party based elections will also create some problems in panchayat elections. That is the reason we find political parties in almost all countries in the world. Whether these countries are big or small, develop or developing. India, USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, the major democratic countries have political parties. Even the dictatorship China too have at least one political party. Political parties are directly linked to the emergence of representative democracy. Representative democracy is also called indirect democracy. What is indirect democracy? Indirect democracy is when citizens elect representatives to make laws for them. As we choose leader in our election for making decision for us. So India is a representative democracy. So we can say political parties are necessary for democracy. They bring various candidates together so that responsible government could be formed. They support or restate. the government in formulation of policies. How many parties we should have? Students, you know that political parties are a necessary condition for a democracy. And in a democratic country, it is citizens'fundamental right to form the political parties if they want. Means any group of people. in a country is free to form the political parties. And that is the reason we find a large number of political parties in each country. Even in India, we have more than 750 political parties registered with election commission. But all these parties are not serious contenders, means all these are not in race to get the majority and form the government. Only few political parties are in competition to get the majority and form the government. Then the question is, how many parties are good for a democracy? Or how many major parties should a country have? To answer this question, we need to understand the types of party system. Let's start. So there are three major types of party system. One party system, two party system and multi-party system. Let's get into the details. So the first one is one party system. A one party system is a system, a political system in which only one party is allowed to form the government and rule the country. Means there is only one party exist in a country and rule the country and generally the citizens of the country are not free to form another party. China, North Korea, Cuba are some examples of the one-party system. But we cannot consider a one-party system as a democratic option because while voting in the election, people do not have many choices here. Since there is only one party, people have to choose the candidates within the party. the candidate or the party does not work, also there is no way to change it. People have to vote again and again to the candidates of the same party and let it rule because there is no other option. So, in a democratic system, there must be at least two parties to compete each other. So, next we have two-party system. So, let's talk about two-party system. In two-party system, there are two major political parties. in a country and the power of the government shifts between these two parties. Even several other parties may exist but only these two parties have serious chances of winning the majority of seats to form the government. Here we can take the example of the USA. The USA is a two party system and the two parties of the USA are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In this case, when there is two party in a country, people have the option. If one party does not work, they can choose the candidates of another party in the next election. So this kind of system, when there is two party and people have choices, we can consider a democratic option. Next party system is the multi-party system. Multi-party system is the most common political system in which more than two parties in a country have the capacity to win the majority of seats and form the government. But in case no party gets the clear majority, then several parties join hands and form a government. This kind of government is known as a coalition government. Students, when we talk about a coalition government, we must know what is an alliance. In politics, when several parties join hands to contest the election and win the power of the government is called an alliance. In India, the major alliances are NDA, National Democratic Alliance. It is led by BJP. It was founded in 1998. And the chairperson of NDA is Mr. Amit Shah. There are 31 member parties in NDA. Or we can say NDA is a group of 31 political parties. Next major alliance is UPA, United Progressive Alliance. It was founded in 2004 and the chairperson of UPA is Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Then third well-known alliance is Left Front. Left Front was founded in 1977 and the chairperson of Left Front is Bimon Bosch. Here we are to a question, how many parties should a country have or how many parties are good for a democracy? The answer is, the party system is not something that any country can choose. Party system evolves over a long time and depends upon certain factors like nature of society, social and regional division in a country, history of politics and the most important, the system of the elections in a country. All these factors play a major role in the development of a party system in a country. So if we talk about India, India is a large country with social and geographical diversity. We have social and regional differences. We have different languages, different communities and different religions. All these diversities cannot be absorbed by one or two parties. Thus India has a multi-party system. This is all about the types of party systems. Students, please write down the notes. National parties. Students, you know that India has a multi-party system in which we have a number of national and regional parties. National parties are country-wide parties, means national parties are extending throughout the countries. They have units in various states, but all these units in different states follow the same policies and programs. Here we can take the example of BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party, a national party. which has units in various states. But all these states follow the same policies and programs decided by the BJP at national level. National parties are recognized by the Election Commission of India and provided special facilities and a unique symbol. Who can use this unique symbol? This symbol can be used only by the official candidates of the party. In short, we can say that the national parties are countrywide parties. They have units in various streets. But all these units follow the same policies and programs set by the party. These parties are recognized by the election commission and given special facilities and a unique symbol. Is it clear? Let's move on to the next topic. The criteria laid down by the election commission to recognize a party as a national party. So what are the criteria laid down by the election commission to recognize a party? A party that has to be recognized as a national party should get at least 6% of total votes in Lok Sabha. Or 6% of total vote in assembly election in four streets. So here you can see two conditions are there. One condition should be fulfilled. The first one is 6% of total vote it should get. in Lok Sabha election or it should get 6% of total votes in assembly election. So one condition should be fulfilled here. And the second condition is it should get 4 seats, at least 4 seats in Lok Sabha. Thus a party that secures 6% of total votes in Lok Sabha or in state assembly in 4 states and wins the election. 4 seats is recognized as a National Party. As per latest publication by the Election Commission of India, 8 political parties are recognized as the National Parties. First one is the Indian National Congress, then Bhartiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Communist Party of India, Marxist. Communist Party of India, All India Trimul Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, National People's Party, 8 National Parties of India. But all these 8 parties differ from each other based on ideology. What is ideology? Ideology means opinion or belief. Student you know that ultimate goal of each party is to bring positive change in the society or the welfare of the society or the country but their opinion or ideas about it is different means each political party has different ideas and or opinion about bringing change in the country so this different ideas or different kind of opinion about bringing change in society or country is known as the ideology of the political party. Let's get some information about each national party. The Indian National Congress, popularly known as the Congress Party. The Congress Party is one of the oldest party in the world. It was founded in 1885. The major ideology of Congress is the secularism and welfare of weaker section and the minorities. Secularism means respecting or treating all the religion equally. Minorities are small communities or religious group. The current president of the Congress party is Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Another national party is the Bhardiya Janata Party. BJP was founded in 1980. The ideology of the BJP is Cultural Nationalism, Hindutva, complete territorial and political integration, a uniform civil code for all the people in the country. The President of BJP is Mr. Jagat Prakash Nad. Presently, BJP is the major political party of India. It secured 37% of votes and 303 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha election. Next political party is the Bahujan Samaj Party, BSP. BSP was founded in 1984. It was founded under the leadership of Kashi Ram, one of the great leaders of the Dalit movement. The ideology of BSP is securing the interest and welfare of the Dalits, Adivasi and OBCs. The president of BSP is Mayavati Ji. BSP secured 5% of votes and 19 seats in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Next political party is Communist Party of India, Marxist, CPIM. CPIM had separated from the Communist Party of India, CPI. It was founded in the year 1960. The ideology of CPIM is socialism, secularism and democracy. CPIM wants socio-economic justice in India for all the people. It has strong support in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, especially among the workers and farmers. The President of CPIM is Mr. K. Balakrishnan. Another National Party is the Communist Party of India. CPI was founded in the year 1925. The ideology of CPI is the secularism, democracy and securing the interest of working class, farmers and poor. This party has a strong support in Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Andhra. The President of CPI is Mr. D. Raja. Next party is the All India Trimural Congress Party. TMC was founded in the year 1998. The ideology of TMC is anti-communism and Bengali nationalism. What is communism? Communism is a system in which the major means of production such as machines, factories are controlled by the workers not by the factory owners. TMC is against of this kind of system. Thus, TMC is the anti-communism party. Currently, TMC is the fifth largest party in the Lok Sabha with 22 seats. The president of TMC is Mamata Banerjee. Another national party is the Nationalist Congress Party. The NCP was founded in 1999. The ideology of the NCP is the democracy, Gandhian secularism and the social justice. The NCP is a major party in Maharashtra and also supported by the people of Meghalaya, Manipur and Assam. The President of the NCP is Mr. Sharad Pawan. 8th National Party of India is the National People's Party. NPP is the first party from North East India to be recognized as a National Party. NPP was founded in the year 2000 the founder of NPP is PA sagma NPP is the major party of Meghalaya the president of NPP is Konrad sagma challenges faced by the political parties a first challenge to political party is lack of internal democracy isn't you know that political parties are the most visible face of democracy but there is lack of internal democracy within the party Sometimes party do not follow the principles of democracy. Members are not treated equally. Here we can discuss these four points. The first one is power is concentrated in one or a few leaders at the top. Means only top leaders have the power to make the decision or choose the candidates. They do not consult with other members. Every member of the party does not have a chance to take part in the decision making process. as decisions are taken by the top leaders so other members do not get chance in the decision making process. They are for the namesake in the party. Party do not keep a membership register or hold the organizational meeting. We know that thousands of members work for the party but there is no proper organization or registration of member. Sometimes they work for the party but not recognized. Parties do not conduct internal elections regularly. We know that in each party there are internal elections for different posts like secretary, president but sometimes elections never take place. Posts are given to the members directly by the top leaders of the party. Most of the members don't get proper information about the inner working of the party. In this case they feel neglected. They find it difficult to continue with the party. A next challenge to political party is dynastic succession which is related to the first one lack of internal democracy. In many political parties top positions are controlled by the members of one family. Means top positions like president, general secretary, state presidents are given to their son or daughter or other relatives. This is unfair for other members of the party. This is also bad for the democracy since people do not have adequate experience or popular support come to occupy the positions of power. Without any ability to hold their positions, sometimes these relatives become the part of the government which is very dangerous for the country. We can find this kind of tendency in most of the party either regional or national. A third challenge to political party is money and muscle power. We know party need money especially during election and that's why party choose those candidates who can raise money for the party and win election with their money. But these rich people and companies who give funds to political party tend to influence the policies and decision of the political parties. As party get money during election from the rich people, after winning they work for them and their policies promote their businesses. Sometime party also support criminal candidates. because they can win elections. The fourth challenge to political party is the meaningful choice to the voters. Political parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters because all political parties in India are similar to each other in actions and policies. These are people who wants different policies have no option available to them. We know that most of the political parties have the same fundamental and ideological issues. Sometimes people cannot elect very different leaders either. Because leaders keep shifting from one party to another. We have seen that people vote one leader because their policies are different from other parties. But after winning this leader join the same party he was against earlier. Thus voters get confused and lose belief in the political party. The efforts and suggestions which have been made to reform the political parties. To reform the political parties, first of all, the constitution was amended because many MPs and MLAs indulge in defection to become minister or for cash reward. The question is here what is defection? Defection is an act of shifting from one party to another after getting elected to a legislative body. Suppose there are two political parties A and B and the leader belongs to a political party but after election B will make the government offering ministry and huge cash amount to the leader. Now this leader can shift from A party to B party for getting the ministry or cash rewards. To prevent such defections an anti-defection law was passed in 1985. Under this law if any MLA or MP changes parties he or she will lose the seats in legislature. Means the leader will be no more MP or MLA. One thing we should know that if two-thirds of MPs or MLA of a party altogether shifting to another party, it will not come under the defection. The second step has been taken by the Supreme Court. To reduce money and criminal influence, the Supreme Court made it mandatory compulsory for every candidate to file an affidavit before the election. Now the question is what is an affidavit? An affidavit is a signed document where a person makes a sound statement regarding his personal information. So before the election, the candidate has to file an affidavit giving the details of his property, qualification and criminal cases. Now all the information of the candidates will be in the public domain. Nevertheless, there is no system of check if the information given by the candidate is correct or not. The election commission has made another effort. The election commission passed an order making it necessary for all the political parties to hold their organizational elections and file their income tax returns. Now the political parties have started following all these instructions but sometime it is a mere formality because leaders are not serious about the reforms in political parties. Inside these steps Many suggestions are often made to reform political parties such as a law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties. And the second is it should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of its members. Means the registration of members is necessary. The third is party should reserve at least one third of the seats for women candidates. As we know that the political participation of women. has been very low in India. So one third of seats should be reserved for the women in the political parties. The fourth is government should give money to political party to support their election expenses. It can be either given in form of cash or in the form of petrol, paper, telephone etc. This may reduce the influence of money in election. There are other two ways in which political party can be reformed. Firstly, the ordinary people, pressure group and especially media can put pressure on political parties by raising their voice. Because if political parties feel that they will lose the support of public by not taking up reforms, they would be serious about reforms. Second is joining the political parties. Simply criticizing the political parties from outside is not enough. People should join the political party if they want reforms in political parties.

What is a political party? A political party is a group of people who come together to contact selection and hold power in the government. So political party is a group of people. Means many people come together and form a party. Like BJP and Congress, the major political parties of India.

The member of these party take part in election. After winning, the party who gets majority forms the government and runs the government. Other parties play the role of opposition.

They criticize the government. for its failures and wrong policies. All the members of the party agree on some policies and programs for betterment of society with a view to achieve the common interest. Our next topic is the components of a political party. A political party has three components, the leaders, the active members and the followers.

The leaders, a political party consists of leaders. who contacts election and formulate policies and program of the party. Then there are number of active members in the party.

They are the assistant of the leaders. These members play very important role in the promoting the policies and agenda of the party at ground level. Then there are countless followers who believe in the party ideology. Means more than the party, they connect to the ideology of the party.

and support the party by voting. In short, we can say a political party is a group of people. These people come together to context election in order to hold power in the government.

The primary role of the political party is to fix the political agenda and policies. The three components of political parties are the leaders, the active members and the followers. Next we have functions of political parties. Political parties perform a series of functions. First one is parties conduct elections.

As we know elections are fought mainly among the candidates but the question is who choose candidates to win elections. Well in some countries such as USA members and supporters of a party choose its candidates to win elections. But some other countries like India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections. The second function is parties put forward different policies and programs and the voters choose from them.

You must have seen each party at the time of election put forward different policies and programs. And the voters choose the party whose policies and programs they like and cast their votes. Third function of political parties.

Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Decisive means ability to make decisions. Parties play a very important role in making laws.

You know laws are debated and passed in legislature. But since most of the members belong to a party, they go by the direction of the party leaders. Irrespective of their personal views.

Means whatever their personal views. about the laws or policy but they always support the party. Fourth function of political party.

Parties form and run government. After election, the party which wins the election forms and runs the government. They train the leaders and make them ministers.

These ministers run the government the way the party wants. Means ministers work according to the party's views. The next function done by political party is those parties that lose in election play the role of opposition. As I earlier said, after election the winner party forms and runs the government. And other parties play the role of opposition.

They criticize the government for its wrong policies and failures. Next function is political parties shape public opinion. Political parties raise and highlight the public problems.

Sometime even they launch the movement to solve the problems faced by the people. Seventh and the last function is parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes. Government machinery means the government department officer etc. The members of the party and local leaders are usually very close to the people.

And it is very easy for the people to approach the local leader than a government officer. But parties have to respond to the people's needs. Otherwise, people can reject those parties in the next election.

In short, functions of political parties. First, parties conduct elections. Second, parties put forward different policies and programs, and the voters choose from them and cast their votes.

Third, parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Fourth, Parties form and run government. Fifth, those parties that lose in election play the role of opposition to the parties in power.

Sixth, political parties shape public opinion. Seventh, parties provide people access to government machineries and welfare schemes. Dear student, for exam point of view, this topic is very important. You must learn it.

Necessity of political parties. Students, if the question is why do we need political parties, we can answer we need political parties because they perform all the seven functions we have already discussed. But if the question is why a modern democracy cannot exist without political parties, then we need to imagine a situation without political parties.

What will be the situation in a country if there is no political parties? In that case, every candidate in the election will be independent. If a candidate will be independent, he would not be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes. In that case, government may be forced to make any promises to the people. But this kind of government's utility or usefulness will remain always uncertain or unstable.

Because they will not have majority in their favor or control over the candidates. In this situation, elected candidates will be only responsible to their constituency or what they do in their locality. But no one will be responsible for whole country or how the country will run.

Non-party based elections will also create some problems in panchayat elections. That is the reason we find political parties in almost all countries in the world. Whether these countries are big or small, develop or developing.

India, USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, the major democratic countries have political parties. Even the dictatorship China too have at least one political party. Political parties are directly linked to the emergence of representative democracy. Representative democracy is also called indirect democracy.

What is indirect democracy? Indirect democracy is when citizens elect representatives to make laws for them. As we choose leader in our election for making decision for us. So India is a representative democracy.

So we can say political parties are necessary for democracy. They bring various candidates together so that responsible government could be formed. They support or restate.

the government in formulation of policies. How many parties we should have? Students, you know that political parties are a necessary condition for a democracy. And in a democratic country, it is citizens'fundamental right to form the political parties if they want.

Means any group of people. in a country is free to form the political parties. And that is the reason we find a large number of political parties in each country. Even in India, we have more than 750 political parties registered with election commission.

But all these parties are not serious contenders, means all these are not in race to get the majority and form the government. Only few political parties are in competition to get the majority and form the government. Then the question is, how many parties are good for a democracy?

Or how many major parties should a country have? To answer this question, we need to understand the types of party system. Let's start. So there are three major types of party system. One party system, two party system and multi-party system.

Let's get into the details. So the first one is one party system. A one party system is a system, a political system in which only one party is allowed to form the government and rule the country.

Means there is only one party exist in a country and rule the country and generally the citizens of the country are not free to form another party. China, North Korea, Cuba are some examples of the one-party system. But we cannot consider a one-party system as a democratic option because while voting in the election, people do not have many choices here.

Since there is only one party, people have to choose the candidates within the party. the candidate or the party does not work, also there is no way to change it. People have to vote again and again to the candidates of the same party and let it rule because there is no other option.

So, in a democratic system, there must be at least two parties to compete each other. So, next we have two-party system. So, let's talk about two-party system. In two-party system, there are two major political parties.

in a country and the power of the government shifts between these two parties. Even several other parties may exist but only these two parties have serious chances of winning the majority of seats to form the government. Here we can take the example of the USA. The USA is a two party system and the two parties of the USA are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

In this case, when there is two party in a country, people have the option. If one party does not work, they can choose the candidates of another party in the next election. So this kind of system, when there is two party and people have choices, we can consider a democratic option. Next party system is the multi-party system.

Multi-party system is the most common political system in which more than two parties in a country have the capacity to win the majority of seats and form the government. But in case no party gets the clear majority, then several parties join hands and form a government. This kind of government is known as a coalition government. Students, when we talk about a coalition government, we must know what is an alliance.

In politics, when several parties join hands to contest the election and win the power of the government is called an alliance. In India, the major alliances are NDA, National Democratic Alliance. It is led by BJP.

It was founded in 1998. And the chairperson of NDA is Mr. Amit Shah. There are 31 member parties in NDA. Or we can say NDA is a group of 31 political parties. Next major alliance is UPA, United Progressive Alliance. It was founded in 2004 and the chairperson of UPA is Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.

Then third well-known alliance is Left Front. Left Front was founded in 1977 and the chairperson of Left Front is Bimon Bosch. Here we are to a question, how many parties should a country have or how many parties are good for a democracy? The answer is, the party system is not something that any country can choose.

Party system evolves over a long time and depends upon certain factors like nature of society, social and regional division in a country, history of politics and the most important, the system of the elections in a country. All these factors play a major role in the development of a party system in a country. So if we talk about India, India is a large country with social and geographical diversity. We have social and regional differences.

We have different languages, different communities and different religions. All these diversities cannot be absorbed by one or two parties. Thus India has a multi-party system.

This is all about the types of party systems. Students, please write down the notes. National parties.

Students, you know that India has a multi-party system in which we have a number of national and regional parties. National parties are country-wide parties, means national parties are extending throughout the countries. They have units in various states, but all these units in different states follow the same policies and programs.

Here we can take the example of BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party, a national party. which has units in various states. But all these states follow the same policies and programs decided by the BJP at national level. National parties are recognized by the Election Commission of India and provided special facilities and a unique symbol.

Who can use this unique symbol? This symbol can be used only by the official candidates of the party. In short, we can say that the national parties are countrywide parties. They have units in various streets. But all these units follow the same policies and programs set by the party.

These parties are recognized by the election commission and given special facilities and a unique symbol. Is it clear? Let's move on to the next topic. The criteria laid down by the election commission to recognize a party as a national party.

So what are the criteria laid down by the election commission to recognize a party? A party that has to be recognized as a national party should get at least 6% of total votes in Lok Sabha. Or 6% of total vote in assembly election in four streets.

So here you can see two conditions are there. One condition should be fulfilled. The first one is 6% of total vote it should get. in Lok Sabha election or it should get 6% of total votes in assembly election.

So one condition should be fulfilled here. And the second condition is it should get 4 seats, at least 4 seats in Lok Sabha. Thus a party that secures 6% of total votes in Lok Sabha or in state assembly in 4 states and wins the election. 4 seats is recognized as a National Party. As per latest publication by the Election Commission of India, 8 political parties are recognized as the National Parties.

First one is the Indian National Congress, then Bhartiya Janata Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Communist Party of India, Marxist. Communist Party of India, All India Trimul Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, National People's Party, 8 National Parties of India. But all these 8 parties differ from each other based on ideology. What is ideology?

Ideology means opinion or belief. Student you know that ultimate goal of each party is to bring positive change in the society or the welfare of the society or the country but their opinion or ideas about it is different means each political party has different ideas and or opinion about bringing change in the country so this different ideas or different kind of opinion about bringing change in society or country is known as the ideology of the political party. Let's get some information about each national party.

The Indian National Congress, popularly known as the Congress Party. The Congress Party is one of the oldest party in the world. It was founded in 1885. The major ideology of Congress is the secularism and welfare of weaker section and the minorities. Secularism means respecting or treating all the religion equally.

Minorities are small communities or religious group. The current president of the Congress party is Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Another national party is the Bhardiya Janata Party.

BJP was founded in 1980. The ideology of the BJP is Cultural Nationalism, Hindutva, complete territorial and political integration, a uniform civil code for all the people in the country. The President of BJP is Mr. Jagat Prakash Nad. Presently, BJP is the major political party of India.

It secured 37% of votes and 303 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha election. Next political party is the Bahujan Samaj Party, BSP. BSP was founded in 1984. It was founded under the leadership of Kashi Ram, one of the great leaders of the Dalit movement. The ideology of BSP is securing the interest and welfare of the Dalits, Adivasi and OBCs. The president of BSP is Mayavati Ji.

BSP secured 5% of votes and 19 seats in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Next political party is Communist Party of India, Marxist, CPIM. CPIM had separated from the Communist Party of India, CPI.

It was founded in the year 1960. The ideology of CPIM is socialism, secularism and democracy. CPIM wants socio-economic justice in India for all the people. It has strong support in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, especially among the workers and farmers.

The President of CPIM is Mr. K. Balakrishnan. Another National Party is the Communist Party of India. CPI was founded in the year 1925. The ideology of CPI is the secularism, democracy and securing the interest of working class, farmers and poor.

This party has a strong support in Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Andhra. The President of CPI is Mr. D. Raja. Next party is the All India Trimural Congress Party.

TMC was founded in the year 1998. The ideology of TMC is anti-communism and Bengali nationalism. What is communism? Communism is a system in which the major means of production such as machines, factories are controlled by the workers not by the factory owners.

TMC is against of this kind of system. Thus, TMC is the anti-communism party. Currently, TMC is the fifth largest party in the Lok Sabha with 22 seats. The president of TMC is Mamata Banerjee.

Another national party is the Nationalist Congress Party. The NCP was founded in 1999. The ideology of the NCP is the democracy, Gandhian secularism and the social justice. The NCP is a major party in Maharashtra and also supported by the people of Meghalaya, Manipur and Assam.

The President of the NCP is Mr. Sharad Pawan. 8th National Party of India is the National People's Party. NPP is the first party from North East India to be recognized as a National Party.

NPP was founded in the year 2000 the founder of NPP is PA sagma NPP is the major party of Meghalaya the president of NPP is Konrad sagma challenges faced by the political parties a first challenge to political party is lack of internal democracy isn't you know that political parties are the most visible face of democracy but there is lack of internal democracy within the party Sometimes party do not follow the principles of democracy. Members are not treated equally. Here we can discuss these four points. The first one is power is concentrated in one or a few leaders at the top. Means only top leaders have the power to make the decision or choose the candidates.

They do not consult with other members. Every member of the party does not have a chance to take part in the decision making process. as decisions are taken by the top leaders so other members do not get chance in the decision making process.

They are for the namesake in the party. Party do not keep a membership register or hold the organizational meeting. We know that thousands of members work for the party but there is no proper organization or registration of member.

Sometimes they work for the party but not recognized. Parties do not conduct internal elections regularly. We know that in each party there are internal elections for different posts like secretary, president but sometimes elections never take place. Posts are given to the members directly by the top leaders of the party. Most of the members don't get proper information about the inner working of the party.

In this case they feel neglected. They find it difficult to continue with the party. A next challenge to political party is dynastic succession which is related to the first one lack of internal democracy. In many political parties top positions are controlled by the members of one family.

Means top positions like president, general secretary, state presidents are given to their son or daughter or other relatives. This is unfair for other members of the party. This is also bad for the democracy since people do not have adequate experience or popular support come to occupy the positions of power.

Without any ability to hold their positions, sometimes these relatives become the part of the government which is very dangerous for the country. We can find this kind of tendency in most of the party either regional or national. A third challenge to political party is money and muscle power.

We know party need money especially during election and that's why party choose those candidates who can raise money for the party and win election with their money. But these rich people and companies who give funds to political party tend to influence the policies and decision of the political parties. As party get money during election from the rich people, after winning they work for them and their policies promote their businesses. Sometime party also support criminal candidates.

because they can win elections. The fourth challenge to political party is the meaningful choice to the voters. Political parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters because all political parties in India are similar to each other in actions and policies.

These are people who wants different policies have no option available to them. We know that most of the political parties have the same fundamental and ideological issues. Sometimes people cannot elect very different leaders either.

Because leaders keep shifting from one party to another. We have seen that people vote one leader because their policies are different from other parties. But after winning this leader join the same party he was against earlier. Thus voters get confused and lose belief in the political party. The efforts and suggestions which have been made to reform the political parties.

To reform the political parties, first of all, the constitution was amended because many MPs and MLAs indulge in defection to become minister or for cash reward. The question is here what is defection? Defection is an act of shifting from one party to another after getting elected to a legislative body. Suppose there are two political parties A and B and the leader belongs to a political party but after election B will make the government offering ministry and huge cash amount to the leader.

Now this leader can shift from A party to B party for getting the ministry or cash rewards. To prevent such defections an anti-defection law was passed in 1985. Under this law if any MLA or MP changes parties he or she will lose the seats in legislature. Means the leader will be no more MP or MLA. One thing we should know that if two-thirds of MPs or MLA of a party altogether shifting to another party, it will not come under the defection. The second step has been taken by the Supreme Court.

To reduce money and criminal influence, the Supreme Court made it mandatory compulsory for every candidate to file an affidavit before the election. Now the question is what is an affidavit? An affidavit is a signed document where a person makes a sound statement regarding his personal information.

So before the election, the candidate has to file an affidavit giving the details of his property, qualification and criminal cases. Now all the information of the candidates will be in the public domain. Nevertheless, there is no system of check if the information given by the candidate is correct or not.

The election commission has made another effort. The election commission passed an order making it necessary for all the political parties to hold their organizational elections and file their income tax returns. Now the political parties have started following all these instructions but sometime it is a mere formality because leaders are not serious about the reforms in political parties.

Inside these steps Many suggestions are often made to reform political parties such as a law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties. And the second is it should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of its members. Means the registration of members is necessary. The third is party should reserve at least one third of the seats for women candidates. As we know that the political participation of women.

has been very low in India. So one third of seats should be reserved for the women in the political parties. The fourth is government should give money to political party to support their election expenses.

It can be either given in form of cash or in the form of petrol, paper, telephone etc. This may reduce the influence of money in election. There are other two ways in which political party can be reformed. Firstly, the ordinary people, pressure group and especially media can put pressure on political parties by raising their voice.

Because if political parties feel that they will lose the support of public by not taking up reforms, they would be serious about reforms. Second is joining the political parties. Simply criticizing the political parties from outside is not enough. People should join the political party if they want reforms in political parties.

Transcript for:Understanding Political Parties and Their Functions

Transcript for:
Understanding Political Parties and Their Functions