CONGRESS SYSTEM

DOMINANCE

DEMISE

RESTORATION
1950s-1960s
 BI-PARTY SYSTEM
• India did not have a two party system in truest sense

• But there were few occasions which conditions similar to Two-party

system came up.

• Bipolar political system- In this system, three or more parties come

together to form pre-election or post-election alliance, form a
coalition government and/or adopt a common minimum programme.
Such alliances generally occur around two major parties, which work
as competing polls or alliance. As there are two poles of such
alliances, the party system in such alliance is called bi-polar party
system
 EXAMPLES

National LEVEL-
NON CONGRESS SVD
GOVERNMMENTS Janata Party UPA vs. NDA
government 1977
• from 2004 there is one
major party in the
coalition government.
• On the one hand • At that time, the • For example, in 2004
pole was the Congress became and 2009 it was a
Congress party an opposition coalition government of
UPA in which Congress
• and on the other party was the leading among
it was a group of • And the Janata other parties in the
non-Congress Party became the alliance
ruling party. • and in 2014, in NDA
parties government BJP had
supremacy in a coalition
of alliance parties
 MULTI PARTY SYSTEM
• Emergence of multiple parties in several states was
result of changes which had occurred in the
society.
• The rise of new issues and regional leaders
• The rise of BSP and SP in north India, TMC in West
Bengal and BJP in Odisha in the 1980s and 1990s,
and several such examples show presence of
multiparty system in India.
 FEATURES OF MULTIPLE PARTY SYSTEMS
EXISTING TODAY
• The party system as it is operating at present is
based upon multiplicity of political parties
• politics of alliance
• drawing some common minimum programme
• the regional parties are playing important role in
setting the national agenda
 • Policy paralysis and delay in decision making and

DEMERIT
bills all result from coalitions.
• In times of emergency, coalition coordination
can lead to unacceptable delays.
• Coalition government can obstruct the process of
decision making and the conduct of decision

S
implementation.
• Coalition government has turned politics of north
India into one of competition for vote
banks based on caste and community etc.

•Regional parties fill a vacuum for protecting minorities.

•The coalition politics has led to empowerment for regional

MERITS
parties from the states and has added to India’s search for true
federalism.

•Thus, it paves the way for a kind of ‘electoral federalism’.

•Since 1996, twenty three regional parties have been sharing
power at the national level. there is a strong sense of Indianness,
or what is called a federal unifier.
2014 to now: Resurgence of One-party
System?
• Two general elections 2014 and 2019, saw a single
party (BJP) on its own getting the full
majority, breaking the 25 years of compulsions of
coalition politics.
• However the Government is still formed out of
alliance of many political parties