Introduction 

A political party basically, is a group of people. They come together to contest elections in order to hold power in the government. This is a way to mobilize voters to support common interests, concerns, and goals. The primary role of the political party is to fix the political agenda and policies. Each party tries to persuade people by claiming that their policies are better than those of other parties.

In a wide viewpoint, a political party is a means through which the people can speak to the government and have a say in the governance of the country. Every political party have these three key components:

• Leaders
• Active Members
• Followers

The Necessity of Political Parties

The political parties are needed as the parties perform the functions as prescribed in the functions below. Also, the political parties help in representing the different views on various issues to the government and bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed. The political parties work as a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, justify or oppose them. Political parties fulfil the needs that every representative government has to do.

Functions of Political Parties

1. To contest elections.
2. To Put forward various policies and programmes further in which the voters can choose from them.
3. To make laws for a country.
4. The Parties run and form governments.
5. The parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by voicing different views and criticising the government for its failures or wrong policies.
6. To shape public opinion.
7. Provides the people access to the government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by the governments.

Some National Parties in India

1) All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)

2) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)

3) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

4) Communist Party of India (CPI)

5) Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M)

6) Indian National Congress (INC)

7) Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)

Some State Parties

1. Biju Janata Dal
2. Sikkim Democratic Front
3. Mizo National Front
4. Telangana Rashtra Samithi
5. Rashtriya Lok Samta Party
6. All India Forward Bloc
7. All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen
8. Indain Union Muslim League
9. Lok Jan Shakti Party
10. Rashtriya Janata Dal
11. Samajwadi Party
12. Revolutionary Socialist Party

Challenges to Political Parties

1. Lack of internal democracy within parties as parties do not keep membership registers, and do not hold organisational meetings, and do not conduct internal elections regularly.
2. Most political parties do not practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning, so there are very few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party. 
3. During elections  parties  focus mainly  on winning elections, and tend to use short-cuts to win elections. In some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections.
4. People sometimes do not find parties to be a meaningful choice for their votes, as people cannot even elect very different leaders either, due to which the same set of leaders keep shifting from one party to another.

Conclusion

Political Parties in India is necessary as it helps people to choose their representatives to put forth their needs before the government and also the political parties in India helps democracy to take place.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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