Alliance

➢Alliance means coming together of political

parties mostly to gain majority in an election
and limit splitting of votes.
Pre-Poll Alliance:
➢Pre - Poll Alliance in Politics is where Two or more
Political Parties reach an understanding before
the elections. They contest the elections together
and then, form the Govt. together if they win the
elections.
• All the participating parties enter into a seat
sharing agreement before giving tickets to the
candidates, usually when parties enter a seat
sharing agreement, they divide the constituencies
among themselves.
➢For example, in recent Bihar elections.
➢NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (NDA)
➢Chief Minister Candidate: Nitish Kumar
➢Coalition Parties: JDU, BJP, Hindustan Awam
Morcha, and Vikashsheel Insaan Party
➢the JD(U) fielded candidates only in 115
constituencies, BJP in 110 constituency,
Vikashsheel Insaan Party in 11 constituencies and
Hindustan Awam Morcha in 7 constituencies.
➢Total Seats: 243
Reasons behind pre-poll alliance:

➢They want to prevent vote fragmentation that

happens because of similar constituencies of
voters identifying and supporting the parties.

➢They are aware that they probably cannot win it

alone and it would be foolish to try.

➢It is much easier to defend a pre-poll

deal as strategic
Post-Poll Alliance:
➢Post - Poll Alliance is one where Two or more
Political Parties come together into an
understanding after the elections to form the
Govt. together.
➢These parties had contested in elections as Rivals
or Friendly parties. There will be no
understanding between them before the
elections. But, after the polls, they come
together to form the Govt.
➢Right from 1989 many parties have gone in for
pre poll alliance as well as post poll alliance.

➢The pre poll alliance has some inherent

advantages. During 1989 Janata Dal had a loose
pre-poll alliance with BJP and secured 143 seats
and BJP 85 seats.

➢They formed the government.

➢Again during 1996 there was a group of
parties affiliated to BJP ( Samatha, Shiv Sena,
Haryana Vikas party ) winning 187 seats,
National front comprising Janatha Dal,
Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desai Party won 158
seats. These pre poll alliances performed well.
➢Again in 1999 NDA with fourteen parties won
270 seats and formed the government. UPA
too was able to come to power because of
pre-poll alliance for two terms during 2004
and 2009. Hence pre poll alliances produce
better chances of victory.