The history of Indian political parties reflects the country’s complex social, economic, and cultural fabric, with each party playing a significant role in shaping the nation’s destiny.
It was only a matter of time before we saw the formation of the political parties in the country. Few notable individuals like Mahatma Gandhi, Subash Chandra Bose, and B. R. Ambedkar gave a new meaning to the Indian political system.
The Indian political system was established during British rule in the early 1920s-30s. Our freedom fighters decided to take it up themselves and free the country from the shackles of the British Raj.
This movement gave birth to the rise of political parties in India.
Any political party, for that matter, has its own duties and responsibilities to do for society. They are the pillars of any democratic country and are elected by the citizens of that country. When they want to be elected, they need to work for the benefit of society. They should be willing to serve people. The political parties reflect on the fundamental divisions that constantly happen in the community.
The main function of a political party is to contest the election, bring new policies and programmes, start new laws, the party that has won the election forms the ruling party and they share the opinions of the public.
No democratic country in the world can survive without a political party. Their roles and duties are paramount for the smooth functioning of a nation. The elected representatives are mainly responsible for ensuring that the needs of their people are met.
A political party in a democratic can form the party and abide by the country’s laws. They do not have any limitations. China has a one-party system, which may not suit any democratic country.
The United States of America has a two-party system, and so does the United Kingdom. However, India has several parties that can be a good thing in one way for a multicultural and diverse nation like ours.
Most Popular Parties
The history of political parties in India is rich and diverse, reflecting the country’s complex socio-political landscape. The evolution of political parties in India can be traced back to the pre-independence era, with various movements and ideologies shaping the foundation of the Indian political system. Here is an overview of the history of political parties in India:
Indian National Congress (INC):
The Indian National Congress was established when 72 representatives from all over the country met at Bombay in 1885. Prominent delegates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee, Badruddin Tyabji, Pherozeshah Mehta, W. C. Bonnerjee, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar, S. Subramania Iyer, and Romesh Chunder Dutt. The Englishman Allan Octavian Hume, a former British civil servant, was one of the founding members of the Indian National Congress.
It was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, alongside the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is a “big tent” party whose platform is generally considered to lie in the centre of Indian politics. The Party held its first session in 1885 in Bombay where W.C. Bonnerjee presided over it. After Indian independence in 1947, Congress emerged as a catch-all and secular party, dominating Indian politics for the next 50 years. In the 17 general elections since independence, it has won an outright majority on seven occasions and has led the ruling coalition a further three times, heading the central government for more than 54 years. There have been six Prime Ministers from the Congress party, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru (1947–1964), and the most recent being Manmohan Singh (2004–2014).
In 1969, the party suffered a major split, with a faction led by Indira Gandhi leaving the Party to form the Congress (R), with the remainder becoming the Congress (O). The Congress (R) became the dominant faction, winning the 1971 general election by a huge margin. Another split in the party occurred in 1979, leading to the creation of the Congress (I), which was recognized as the Congress by the Electoral Commission in 1981. Under Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership, the party won a massive victory in the 1984 general elections, nevertheless losing the election held in 1989 to the National Front. The Congress then returned to power under P. V. Narasimha Rao, who moved the party towards an economically liberal agenda, a sharp break from previous leaders. However, it lost the 1996 general election and was replaced in government by the National Front (then the BJP). After a record eight years out of office, the Congress-led coalition known as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) under Manmohan Singh formed a government the 2004 general elections. Subsequently, the UPA again formed the government after winning the 2009 general elections, and Singh became the first Prime Minister since Indira Gandhi in 1971 to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. However, in the 2014 general election, the Congress suffered a heavy defeat, winning only 44 seats of the 543-member Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India). In the 2019 general election, the party again suffered defeat, winning only 52 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Communist Party of India (CPI):
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is one of the oldest communist parties in India. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur on 26 December 1925. Currently, it has two members in Lok Sabha and two members in Rajya Sabha. In addition, it has 22 MLAs across four states and one MLC in Bihar. It has the current ECI status of a state party in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Manipur.
CPI was heavily involved in resistance to British colonisation, the fight against the caste system and for land reform.[10] Between 1921 and 1933, many Communist leaders were arrested and imprisoned. In 1934, the British colonial administration banned the Communist Party and its affiliated trade union and peasant organisations, making membership a criminal offence. The Communist Party continued its activities clandestinely, despite the repression. Between 1946 and 1951, it structured the peasant revolt in Telangana and organised guerrilla warfare against the feudal lords. CPI was the main opposition party in India during 1950’s to 1960’s.
CPI was part of the ruling United Front government from 1996 to 1998 and had two ministers under Devegowda and Gujral Ministry. Left Front gave outside support to VP Singh government(1989–90) and UPA government(2004–2009). The Left Front governed West Bengal for 34 years (1977–2011) and Tripura for 25 years (1993–2018).
As of December 2023, the CPI is a part of the state government in Kerala led by LDF. CPI have four Cabinet Ministers and a Deputy Speaker in Kerala. In Tamil Nadu, it is in power with SPA coalition led by DMK. In Telangana, it is in alliance with the INC. CPI, along with the Left Front, is part of the INDIA alliance formed to defeat the incumbent BJP-led right-wing NDA government in 2024 General elections.
Janata Party:
The Janata Party was a political party in India. It was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress and Janata leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India’s history.
Raj Narain, a socialist leader, had filed a legal writ alleging electoral malpractice against Indira Gandhi in 1971. On 12 June 1975, Allahabad High Court found her guilty of using corrupt electoral practices in her 1971 election victory over Narain in the Rae Bareli constituency. She was barred from contesting any election for the next six years. Economic problems, corruption and the conviction of Gandhi led to widespread protests against the Congress (R) government, which responded by imposing a State of Emergency. The rationale was that of preserving national security. However, the government introduced press censorship, postponed elections and banned strikes and rallies. When the State of Emergency was lifted and new elections called in 1977, opposition political parties such as the Congress (O), Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal as well as defectors from the Indian National Congress joined to form the Janata party, which won a sweeping majority in the Indian Parliament. Narain defeated Gandhi at Rae Bareli in those elections.
The new Janata-led government reversed many Emergency-era decrees and opened official investigations into Emergency-era abuses. Although several major foreign policy and economic reforms were attempted, continuous in-fighting and ideological differences made the Janata government unable to effectively address national problems. By mid-1979, Prime Minister Morarji Desai was forced to resign and his successor Chaudhary Charan Singh failed to sustain a parliamentary majority as alliance partners withdrew support. Popular disenchantment with the political in-fighting and ineffective government led to the resurgence of Gandhi and her new Congress (I) party, which won the general election called in 1980. After Jaiprakash Bandhu now Navneet Chaturvedi is the president of Janata Party since November 2021. The Janata Party eventually split into various factions, including the Janata Dal and the BJP. Janata Dal (JD): It was formed in 1988 after the disintegration of the Janata Party. Leaders like V.P. Singh and Lalu Prasad Yadav were associated with the Janata Dal.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP):
The RSS was founded in 1925 as a socio-cultural organization. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980, emerging from the Janata Party. The RSS and BJP are associated with the ideology of Hindutva, focusing on cultural and nationalist themes.
India’s ruling party currently tends to gather momentum and is often the most popular party in the country. Today, the BJP party of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the most popular party in India.
Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteer paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country’s biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
The party’s origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Indian politician Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, after he left Hindu Mahasabha to form a party as the political wing of RSS. After the Emergency of 1975–1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other political parties to form the Janata Party; it defeated the then-incumbent Indian National Congress in the 1977 general election. After three years in power, the Janata Party dissolved in 1980, with the members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvening to form the modern-day BJP. Although initially unsuccessful—winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, it grew in strength on the back of the movement around Ram Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh. Following victories in several state elections and better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest political party in the Parliament in 1996; however, it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its government, under its then-leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lasted for only 13 days.
After the 1998 general election, the BJP-led coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under prime minister Vajpayee formed a government that lasted for a year. Following fresh elections, the NDA government—again headed by Vajpayee—lasted for a full term in office; this was the first non-Congress government to do so. In the 2004 general election, the NDA suffered an unexpected defeat, and for the next ten years, the BJP was the principal opposition party. Narendra Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, led the party to a landslide victory in the 2014 general election. Modi has since led the NDA government as Indian prime minister, including being re-elected in the 2019 general election. As of December 2023, the alliance governs 17 Indian states and union territories.
The official ideology of the BJP is integral humanism, first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1965. The party advocates social conservatism and a foreign policy centred on nationalist principles. During its first period in national government, the BJP avoided its Hindu nationalist priorities, and focused on a largely liberal economic policy that prioritised globalisation and economic growth over social welfare. Since returning to government in 2014, the BJP government has enacted several priorities of the RSS, including criminalising the practice of triple talaq, and revoking Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, and also abrogating its statehood. India has experienced nationwide democratic backsliding under the BJP’s rule since 2014.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), national political party in India. It was formed in 1984. The BSP states that it represents the people at the lowest levels of the Hindu social system—those officially designated as members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes—as well as other religious and social minorities. The core support group of the BSP consists primarily of the Dalits (Scheduled Castes, formerly called untouchables). The party espouses no specific ideology, other than its opposition to and outspoken criticism of the inequalities of the caste system, and its main tenets are focused on respecting and upholding the constitutional rights of the lower members of Indian society.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP):
Formation: The Aam Aadmi Party was formed in 2012 with a focus on anti-corruption and good governance. AAP is currently the governing party in the Indian state of Punjab and the union territory of Delhi. On 10 April 2023, AAP was officially granted the status of National party by ECI. The party’s election symbol is a broom. The party is currently part of the coalition I.N.D.I.A Alliance.
Regional and State Parties:
DMK and AIADMK: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are prominent parties in Tamil Nadu.
Trinamool Congress:
Formed in 1998, the Trinamool Congress has been a major force in West Bengal.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP): Founded in 1982, the TDP has been a key player in Andhra Pradesh politics.
Samajwadi Party
The Samajwadi Party is a socialist political party founded in 1992 party. It was founded by formerly Janata Dal politicians Mulayam Singh Yadav and Beni Prasad Verma and is headquartered in New Delhi. The Samajwadi Party is currently led by former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav. He was chosen as the President for the first time in an Emergency meeting in 2017. He was chosen for second time in 2017 at Agra Convention of Samajwadi Party.
He was chosen for the third time at the party’s national convention held in September 2022 at Lucknow. The party was created just months before the Babri Masjid demolition, the party rose to power by playing secular politics.The support of it’s key voters, other backward classes and Muslims helped the party become a major political force in Uttar Pradesh.
The political landscape in India is dynamic, with parties evolving, merging, and splitting based on changing political dynamics. Various parties representing regional, caste, and community interests contribute to the diversity of India’s political fabric.
The history of political parties in India reflects the country’s commitment to democratic ideals and the constant negotiation of diverse interests within the political sphere.