Party System in India

Introduction:
The party system of India presents a very interesting case study of dynamics of party politics. India inherited the parliamentary system of government from British politics. But it did not imitate all political institutional arrangements. So, where as UK and US, the two prominent political systems have by and large bi party system, India found it plausible to have multi party system that can reflect the ethos of our plurality and heterogeneity. This chapter aims as exploring the evolution of Indian party system through different phases, the predominance of Congress, its breakdown and ascendance of regional parties and their implication on Indian politics.

Topic 1. Indian Party System

Political parties form vital part of the political culture in India. It is hard to conceive of India’s democratic system and its success without the crucial role played by political parties.^[1] A political party is a unified group individuals sharing similar ideology and aim to win the election and form government. In general parties have played a critical role in the democratic process, especially in drawing historically disadvantaged sections of the society into the political system. India has multi party system that displays its own distinctive character. On one hand it has imbibed the vibrant politics of the developed western democracies, yet on the other hand it stands with its own uniqueness. It has blended various forms of participatory politics with indigenous practices and institutions.

Nature of Indian Party system

Indian party system has been described as the ‘one party dominant system’ or the ‘Congress System’ by Prof. Rajni Kothari that can be seen as model of party system in itself. Indian party politics gives the impression of the country as pluralist society, where the interests of  multiplicity of private associations and other various forces is aggregated, and they have considerable influence on policy formation. ‘Congress system’ model suggests that the Congress has been pivotal in the Indian Party system as it forms the core whereas, rest of the parties operate from the periphery in order to pressurize the core. They operate and exert pressure from the margins.

The success of congress in terms of its survival and sustenance in power can be explained in terms of its well planned strategies. It has been the ruling party most of the time, despite of pressure from different corners, accommodating and assimilating various forces like several opposition groups, interest groups, and dissident groups. Yet such forces have not constituted any feasible alternative to the congress in the past. The prime purpose of their existence is to constantly pressurize, criticize, censure and influence the ruling political power.^[2] Thus, the role of opposition basically has been to act as the watchdog and put a constant vigil over the ruling congress. Whereas this results in the latent threat from the margins, the factionalism inside the ruling party provides the instrument of inbuilt correction. In case of India, opposition is divided and fragmented due to lack of consensus and coherence. The opposition survives on gaining where the congress loses. Indian party system consists of ‘party of consensus and parties of pressure.’

c) Major Political Parties in India  

Indian National Congress

Congress has played crucial role in setting the basic parameters of party politics in India. As a party it has been able to accommodate and reconcile the diverse interests from the different states and regions. The theory of Congress system offers a critical insight in the analysis of Indian Party System.

The birth of the Indian National Congress has been seen as milestone, which became the bedrock for foundation of party system in India.It has been Allen Octavian Hume who facilitated its formation. In the colonial era, INC served as a platform to reflect the disgruntlement of Indians and tried to eke out concessions by negotiating with the British raj. In this process it induced the sense of solidarity and national consciousness among Indians to oust the foreign rule eventually. After independence Congress was transformed from a movement into a ruling party and shifted its attention from political mobilization to administrative consolidation accept for the purpose of contending elections. The contribution of INC has been crucial in the sense that after independence it carried out the huge task of nation building. It is with this background that in the early years the nation was identified with the Congress party itself.

Legacy of Indian National Congress:

Like many developing societies, party politics in India has emerged in the context of the national independence movement and parliamentary democracy as result of anti colonial struggle. The historical context therefore provided the earliest political party of India, the character of mass organization. The rise of nationalism in nineteen-century India is believed to provide the backdrop for the emergence of political parties and party system in the country. In the beginning, political parties emerged as public forums in reaction to the colonial rule. The growth of national consciousness gradually led to its galvanization into a mass movement. Indian National Congress is revered as oldest political party in India. The Indian National Congress (INC) was created in 1885 through the union of presidency associations of middle class professionals. It was able to capture unexplored political space at national level and projected itself as authentic repository of spirit of Indian nationalism. Indian National Congress soon became a leading voice of Indian middle class, constantly clamoring for more jobs under the colonial government and for greater political participation. From the time of nineteenth century nationalism till present day, Congress remains a persistent political party. Most of the major non Congress parties originated within, and not outside, the Indian National Congress; among them were the Congress Socialist Party, which became the nucleus of the Praja Socialist Party and even the Communist Party.

Congress: A Critical Evaluation

The past heritage of the congress helped it to emerge as umbrella organisation. People always associated Congress with the legacy of colonial struggle and therefore gave wholehearted support to it. Due to this it was able to form government at the centre as well as in most of the states. It has internalized and assimilated political competition consequently forming system of factions at every level of political and governmental activity. These factions operated by tactics of pressure, mediation, conflict, bargaining, compromise and consensus. Indian party system has taken the shape of single party dominant system or the Congress system or one party dominance system in which, there has been monopoly enjoyed by Congress and yet pluralism finds its way in intra party factions. Across four decades since independence, both in terms of percentage of the votes received and the seats captured in the parliament, the Congress has consistently dominated its rival and its opponents have never forged a stable challenge.

In the first few decades, Congress derived its strength from the landlords in the countryside, the urban capitalist and the expanding middle class. However, decade of 1980 marked a clear shift in the support base of congress due to new challenges put by the emergence of regional bourgeois in many parts of the country. In post green revolution India, a new class of rich farmers and intermediate castes grew who did not see the Congress adequately representing their interests.

Congress party declared itself in favour of a socialistic pattern of development for the Indian society, together with this; the idea of ‘democratic socialism’ and secularism was stressed. From the beginning, Congress has been committed to a democratic ideology. The concept of planned economy was asserted as economic policy. There was considerable expansion of public sector, which sometimes proved to be very expensive in their operation. It tried to remove feudalism and took up the task of linguistic reorganisation of the states in 1956. The objective of agrarian reform was vigorously pursued. Several important sectors were nationalized. The slogan of “Garibi Hatao” was advocated with 1971 election in mind.

In the later decades, conflicts originated and gradually it got aggravated between the legislative and organizational wings of the congress due to personal rivalries and differing interests. In order to enjoy the continuing allegiance of heterogeneous interests, Congress compromised with its broad objectives. Nehru’s failure to provide a remedy to intra party contradiction led to erosion of his authority as a leader of the party and the government. Gradually congress has gone through various splits (1969, 1980, 1994 and 1999). One of these split groups Congress-I have projected itself as inheritor of the Congress party. During the tenure of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi Congress has displayed authoritarian and monopolistic tendencies, for example, emergency imposed in 1977 by Mrs. Gandhi. The governance became centralized and personalized resulting in the decline and decay of the party. From 1980s onwards it became increasingly difficult for Congress to sustain its mass support. It gradually became incapable of providing the leadership accommodating varied interests. 

 It can be observed that the Congress in its earlier phase, used to perform in some degree the work of national parliament where clashing viewpoints and concerns need to determine a generally acceptable line of policy. As the oldest political party in India the Congress has being successful in retaining the goodwill of as many sections of society as it has been feasible. It has harmonized with ease, its three basic elements of leadership with national appeal and acceptability, a pan Indian ideology with recognition and accommodation of local and regional spirit and district level cadre. Even in state of decline in contemporary times, it retains this essential element of its culture. Overall assessment of Congress party shows that it has attempted to sustain its propensity of preservation of democratic tradition. The Congress has shown great sensitivity on the question of respect for minorities, including political minorities. Several factors have helped the success and survival of Congress. Due to its past heritage, Congress has always enjoyed tremendous amount of goodwill, respect and support. These factors helped it in being cohesive. The 2004 Lok Sabha election secured Congress and its allies sizeable gains at the national level leading to its victory and formation of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Electoral Performance of major political parties in Lok Sabha Elections 1977-2004.

		Seats Won
	1977	1980	1984	1989	1991	1996	1998	1999	2004
TOTAL SEATS	542	529	542	529	511	543	543	543	543
CONGRESS	154	353	415	197	227	140	141	114	145
BJP	*	*	02	85	119	162	182	182	138
CPI	07	11	06	12	13	12	9	4	10
CPIM	22	36	22	33	35	32	32	33	43
Janta Party/ Janta Dal	298	31	10	143	56	46	6	21	8
Bahujan Samaj Party	-	-	-	-	-	11	5	14	19

* The BJP was a constituent of the Janta Party in these elections.

Source: Election Commission of India, Website, http://www.eci.gov.in

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)

Bhartiya Janta Party came to prominence in 1990s when it emerged as a ruling party at the national level. It was founded in 1980, however its legacy has been traced  back to the Bhartiya Jan Sangh (1951) and Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sangh (RSS) (1925). These forces have been seen as cherishing the desire of cultural nationalism under the slogan of ‘one country, one nation one culture and rule of law.’ Many scholars believe that while in power, BJP tried to provide Hindu communal orientation to the governance process.

The decay that set in the Congress party created a political vacuum that has been filled by the emergence of BJP as the single largest party in the recent elections. Earlier, the BJP was considered basically as a part of the opposition bloc. However, the Lok Sabha election of 1998 established its centrality in coalition formation at national and regional level. It marked unprecedented growth in the electoral gains of BJP which swung from 2 seats in 8^th Lok Sabha in 1984 to 182 seats in 12^th Lok sabha Election in 1998.It coveted significant vote share from the Congress and other parties due to violent backlash by upper castes against issue of reservation for OBCs advocated by the Mandal Commission. Now BJP has been playing key role in formation of political alliance as a challenge to Congress or Congress led alliance at the centre and the states. The 16th LS elections saddled it on unchallenged seat of power in the centre.

Some of the leaders of BJP project the party’s agenda as formation of a Hindu nation based on the ideology of Hindutva. On one hand the wider perception is that this kind of cultural nationalism poses a threat to the democratic and secular credentials of Indian politics. It also highlights the limitations of their commitment to the realisation of substantive democracy. On the other hand many scholars believe that it will be very difficult for the BJP to implement its agenda of hegemony and Hindutva due to plural ethos of the Indian society. This is reflected in the considerable moderation in ideology and agenda of the party due to the electoral calculations and the pressure of the coalition politics. For example, the BJP sought to accommodate its coalition partners by publishing a national agenda which omitted the controversial issue of the building of Ram temple at Ayodhya, the Uniform Civil Code, and the Kashmir’s special constitutional status as a part of its moderation strategy.

The pragmatism of coalition politics and sensitive electorate has made BJP to broaden its Hindu nationalist agenda. Soon after coming to power in 1998, BJP by exploding the nuclear bomb asserted its strength and tried to project Hindu nationalism as Indian nationalism. Its policies show apparent support to liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. It has used advocacy for strong foreign policy, defence policy and issues of internal security to enhance its domestic support base. The BJP has periodically tones up and subdued its Hindutva rhetoric to come to power and to retain it, displaying cycles of moderation and militancy according to the contingent situation. It wishes to gain support by presenting itself as a centrist party that endorses the common value of the Indian politics. The challenge before this party is to transform its fundamental character and beliefs due to its affiliation, proximity and enduring ties with RSS-VHP network. It is yet to be seen whether BJP will succeed in moulding itself into a liberal framework to provide the national leadership at the same time maintaining the cordial relations with Hindu rights wing elements.

The support base of the party is generally limited to the upper caste and class of the northern Indian States, which make it difficult for the party to provide the national leadership on its own. In non- Hindi speaking states, BJP mostly remains a marginal player. Therefore it has been trying to expand its support base by including the dalits and Muslims in its folds. However, Congress still enjoys the largest amount of support from the underprivileged sections of the Indian society. In the last three elections, BJP’s performance has shown steady increase in share of the seats reserved for schedule tribes. This can be understood by studying the rising communal tensions in the tribal belts of central India including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. Three principle obstacles in the way of further rise of BJP are opposition by Muslim voters, division in votes of backward castes into BJP and the left Janta parties and the near total hold of the Schedule caste votes by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

BJP has been insisting on replacement of minority commission by National Human Rights Commission, Uniform Civil Code for all, and ban on all foreign funds to all organisations and on fraudulent religious conversions. The 1996 manifesto of BJP continued to be committed to the construction of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in the name of Cultural Nationalism. Since no political party can win with majority, all parties are trying to compromise with their agenda and grant concessions to their pre-election allies. According to the contingencies of the electoral processes, BJP has been vacillating between extremism and moderation in its agenda and policy formulation. The defeat of the BJP in parliamentary elections in 2004 has been interpreted as the rejection of communalism by many scholars.

However, elections and electoral politics are of contingent nature. The 16th Lok Sabha Election defied all earlier existing political equations. It started a new chapter in the electoral history of India, as after a spate of coalition politics, the country witnessed single party majority.

The electorate with absolute majority elected BJP to power in this recent elections. Many explanations has been forwarded, for this thumping majority of this party. The most significant of them is the way BJP positioned itself in terms of its agenda and targets putting development at the forefront. Also, projection of Mr Narendra Modi as the development man, as an efficient administrator  at the important states in the country did a great service in securing the preference for BJP. The 16th General Election has been very interesting. On one hand, BJP under Mr. Modi demonstrated a vigorous campaigning, trying to reach to every nook and corner of the country. On the other hand, we have Congress almost decimated to the extent of feeble hopes of revival. There appeared a clear trust deficit in the Congress, nevertheless, no strong initiative from the congress to rejuvenate itself. So, on one hand, The BJP, not only garnered majority, but also was able to come out with flying colors in many state elections like that in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and gained considerable vote share in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the challenge lies in how BJP creatively engages itself with the multicultural ethos of the nation, yet delivering on the issues of development, eradication of corruption in a sustained manner.

Communist Party of India

There has been presence of Communist parties in Indian politics from the time of pre-independence days. They represent Marxist and Communist revolutionary tradition in the modern Indian political history. Primarily referred as reformist political parties, they have functioned by exerting pressure on the ruling parties rather than winning majority to form the government. Left forces represent the radical forces which aim at the transformation of the society in favour of the weak and the marginalized. The Communist parties have associated themselves with the Communist International. There has been split of communist forces resulting in two prominent communist parties CPI and CPI (M).

They Communist parties have to redefine themselves in terms of their objective and methodology with the changing global context. The remarkable significance of Communist parties has been that they have been very critical of the nefarious ways in which forces of globalization implicate on the lives of working and poor classes. They have always scrutinized the neo-liberal policies of the government in order to cater to the needs of the impoverished and helpless masses of the country. They are more successful in influencing the policies of the government as coalition partners in the state and at the national level. Their presence is strong in some states like West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. In the contemporary times there is an urgent need for the Communist parties to rejuvenate themselves in wake of the changing pretext of the society and the world. They need to clearly outline their objectives and methodology in order to reinforce their dominance in the Indian party system.

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Regional Political Parties

Apart from national parties, there are number of political parties that define themselves with reference to particular regions or ethnic groups. Such parties are Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIDMK) in TamilNadu, Telegu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam, National Conference (NC) in Jammu and Kashmir, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab, Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) in Haryana, Biju Janta Dal (BJD) in Orissa, Trinamool Congress in West Bengal etc. Among all such forces, Shiromani Akali Dal, National Conference, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Asom Gana Parishad, ShivSena are results of long drawn struggle and sustained social movements. DMK is the strongest of all regional parties and was formed in 1949 under C. Annadurai. This party took the shape of a movement that flourished on the glory of dravidian past inculcating pride in people regarding their language, literature and Tamil culture. It was also an out burst against the social oppression suffered by the non-Brahmins at the hands of Brahmins and Aryan invaders of the north. Latter on a split in 1972 formed another party Anna DMK under leadership of M.G. Ramachandran. TDP in Andhra Pradesh has successfully projected itself as an alternate to the Congress dominance since 1980s. It was formed by N. T. Rama Rao in 1982. TDP has been revered as the upholder of Telugu pride. It secured a great deal in development in its state, yet it put up poor show in 2004 elections. In Maharastra, Shiv Sena expanded its power and base in 1980s and gained prominence even at national level. However, many view it as parochial Marathi, Hindu communal organisation. Shiv Sena shares many  beliefs of the BJP.

Akali Dal was formed in 1920 and was engaged with the issues of sectarian representation and self-determination. After independence it demanded and acquired statehood in 1966. In the decade of 1980s it got involved in militant movement for autonomy and nationhood which in turn splintered the party. In post-1992 phase the politics of the party is shaped by the emergence of a sharp and shrill politics of Hindutva due to the electoral compulsions.National Conference, one of the oldest regional parties in India has been central to the politics of Jammu and Kashmir since its formation in 1939. It started participating in power politics since 1947 and has remained the single largest party in the state.

 In north India Samajwadi Party (SP) represents the Socialist tradition in Uttar Pradesh. It has been greatest beneficiary and carrier of Mandal upsurge. In its multi-pronged strategy, it seeks to consolidate the caste cleavage by uniting OBCs and also appealing to upper caste votes in the name of development and globalisation. The Bahujan Samaj Party has strong base among Dalits. SP under leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav attempted to create a social and political alliance of SP and BSP at the state level which failed to work out after some time. In Bihar, Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) solicits support on caste lines.

Transformation of Indian Party System: Rise of New Forces and its Critical Evaluation

Plurality of voices and assertions have always found place in the practice of politics in India. Even though Congress considerably has been in centrality of power yet a clear shift can be seen from one party-dominant system to a functional multiparty system. The nature of political participation started showing considerable changes from 1970s onwards. There has been gradual decline of Congress and rise of other political parties like Bhartiya Janta Party and other regional parties.

The decade of 1980 witnessed the growing demand for greater autonomy by the states precipitating in mushrooming of regional parties in India. With time these parties have become prominent national actors in the coalition formations in the central and state governments. These changes in the party regime have constructively brought in new castes and classes in the mainstream politics thereby augmenting the process of democratisation in the country.

The democratic process has deepened with the dramatic participatory upsurge among the socially underprivileged in class and caste hierarchy,^[1] which have been almost nonexistent earlier. This increase in participation and assertion by the marginalised strata of the society indicates major democratic upsurge that has opened new avenues for the unprivileged. The first remarkable change was in decade of 1960s when expansion in participatory base took place in order to proceed towards an alternative to hegemony of the Congress party. This downward thrust of mobilisation of socially deprived people like Dalits, adivasi, Other Backward Castes and all other minorities, continues with added vigour in the contemporary times symbolises the second democratic upsurge.

The decade of 1990s reflected distinctive shifts in terms of mobilisation by different political parties basically engaging with three main issues- Mandal, Masjid and Market referring to caste based reservation, expansion of Hindu nationalism which led to demolition of Babri Masjid and the liberalising policy respectively. The results of the 1998 general elections gave the message that electorate of India had endorsed a two-party or two national alliances system to dominate the country’s political scene, one led by the Congress and the other led by the Bhartiya Janta Party. But the presence of other political parties is equally significant in terms of shaping the nature and functioning of these alliances.

Indian party system has been witnessing greater fragmentation in terms of vote share seat share both at state and national level. There have been certain dilemmas in front of party politics in India. Predominant in them have been the role of religion, caste, vote bank politics, corruption etc. This has also led to the demands for electoral reforms in the country. The completing religious communalism of Hindu, Sikh and Muslims since the beginning of modern politics has blighted the composite national secularism of Indian polity. Paradoxically, on one hand manifestoes of all parties contain commitment to protection of minority communities; on the other hand most of these parties indulge in communal and caste arithmetic for vote bank politics. Several scandals have surfaced from time to time involving most of the large political parties, for example, Havala scandal in which huge payments were made to leaders from all political parties, Bofors scandal, different scams in which parties were involved tacitly, sometimes explicitly, like fodder scam, stamp scam etc.

These inclinations have proved to be detrimental to Indian party politics. Misuse of these ideas and icons must be prevented. On the other hand, values of constitutional ethics, federalisation, effective governance and a mass movement against religious fundamentalism should be inculcated in all political institutions. Electoral Reforms seem a must to revitalise the political scenario. The parties must adhere to their constitutions. Proper audit and account of the parties should be compulsory. Elections to the party positions should be held regularly and dynastic ruler ship should be discouraged. Factionalism and politics of defection should be discouraged. Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990) constituted for making its suggestion for electoral reform recommended some very valuable suggestions like strong checks on the financial aspects like income and expenditure of parties, use of firearms, liquor on poll day to account to electoral offence, legislative measures against booth capturing, rigging and intimidations of voters etc.