Political Parties Test - 2

Partisan is a person who is strongly
committed (staunch) to a party,group or faction.

In a democracy any group of citizens is free to form a political party. In this formal sense there are a large number of political parties in each country. More than 750 parties are registered with the Election Commission of India.

In some countries only one party is allowed to control and run the government.These are called one-party systems.

If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with others, we call it a multi-party system. Thus in India, we have a multi-party system.

When several parties in a multi-party system join hands for the purpose of contesting elections and winning power, it is called an alliance or a front. For example, in India there were three such major alliances in 2004 parliamentary elections– the National Democratic Alliance, the United Progressive Alliance and the Left Front.

BJP came to power in 1998 as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance including several state and regional parties. 

Bahujan SamajParty was 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.

BSP has its main base in the state of Uttar Pradesh and substantial presence in neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Uttarakhand, Delhi and Punjab. 

Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M)
was founded in 1964.CPI(M) has been in power in West Bengal without a break for 30 years.In 2004 elections, it won about 6 percent of votes and 43 seats in the Lok Sabha.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was formed in 1999 following a split in the Congress party.