ONE/SINGLE TWO/ BI

MULTI PARTY
PARTY PARTY
SYSTEM
SYSTEM SYSTEM
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
TWO PARTY SYSTEM MULTI PARTY SYSTEM
A registered party is recognised as a national party only if it
fulfils any one of the three conditions listed below:

 A party should win 2% of seats in the Lok sabha from at least

three different states.
 At a general election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the
party polls 6% of votes in any four or more states and in addition
it wins four Lok Sabha seats.
 A party gets recognition as a state party in four states.
NATIONAL PARTIES RECOGNISED BY ELECTION COMMISSION IN 2019
NATIONAL PARTIES RECOGNISED BY ELECTION COMMISSION IN 2019
NATIONAL PARTIES RECOGNISED BY ELECTION
COMMISSION IN 2019
A party has to fulfill any of the following conditions for
recognition as a state party:

A party should secure at least 6% of valid votes polled in an

election and win at least 2 seats in a state assembly and 1 seat in
Lok Sabha.
A party should win minimum three percent of the total number of
seats or a minimum of three seats in the Legislative Assembly.
The period of first three general elections(1952-67)
where Congress was ruling in Centre as well as in
most of the states is known as CONGRESS SYSTEM

 In the First General Elections , the party won 364/489

seats in Lok Sabha.

 CPI(Communist Party Of India) secured the second

highest with only 16 seats.

 Congress does exceptionally well in the state elections

as well.
It won a majority of seats in all
the states except Travancore-
Cochin(part of today’s Kerala),
Madras and Orissa. Though the
party formed the government there
also.

 Thus, Congress ruled all over the

country at both national and state
level.

 In the second and the third

general elections held in 1957 and
1962, Congress maintained the
same position in the Lok Sabha by
winning three-fourth of seats.
 The dominance of Congress is totally different from the one
party dominance that exists in other parts of the World.

 In some countries like China, Cuba and Syria constitution permits

only one party to rule the country.

 Some other countries like Myanmar, Belarus, Egypt are

effectively one party states due to legal and military reasons.

 In contrast to all the above countries Congress exercised the

dominance totally under democratic conditions.
 Inheritance
of National
Movement Proper
Management organisation
of conflict and
and factions popularity

Social
First Past coalition of
The Post all classes,
System Coalition of caste and
different religious
groups
ideologies
 Economic crisis such as failure of monsoon, drought,
decline in agricultural production, serious food shortage,
depletion of foreign exchange reserves, drop in industrial
production and exports.
 First decision of the Indira Gandhi government was to
devaluate the Indian rupee.
 People started protesting against the increase in the
prices of essential commodities , food security and
growing unemployment.
 Bandhs and hartals were frequently called across the
country.
 Government saw the protests as a law and order
problem and not as an expression of people demands.
 This led to communist and socialist parties launching
protests for greater equality.
 Parties opposed to the Congress realised that the
division of their votes kept the Congress in power.
 Thus for the first time, parties with different
ideologies and programmes got together to form anti-
Congress fronts in states.
 They felt that the inexperience of Indira Gandhi and
internal disputes of Congress provide them an
opportunity to overcome Congress.
 The socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia gave this
strategy the name of ‘Non- Congressism’.
 Many contemporary political observers described the election
results as a ‘political earthquake’
 The Congress did manage to get a majority in the Lok Sabha,
but with its lowest tally of seats and share of votes since 1952.
 Half the ministers in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet were defeated.
Including Kamaraj in Tamil Nadu, S.K. Patil in Maharashtra, Atulya
Ghosh in West Bengal and K. B. Sahay in Bihar.
 The Congress lost majority in seven States. In two other States
defections prevented it from forming a government. These nine
States where the Congress lost power were spread across the
country – Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar,
West Bengal, Orissa, Madras and Kerala
DEFECTION means an elected representative leaves the
party on whose symbol he/she was elected and joins
another party.
 Indira vs. the Syndicate indicates that the real challenge on Indira
Gandhi was not from the opposition but from within the party itself.

 Indira Gandhi had to deal with the Syndicate which was an

influential group within the Congress that ad control over its
organisation.

 The Syndicate consisted of experienced senior leaders who

played a major role in the installation of Indira Gandhi as Prime
Minister by providing her full support at the time of elcetions.
 They expected her to depend on them for guidance and
advice. However, soon Indira Gandhi began asserting herself in
the Party as well as in the government.

 She choose her advisers from outside the party and slowly
began to sideline the Syndicate.

 At this point of time, Indira Gandhi faced 2 major challenges-

• She need to build her independence from the Syndicate.
• She also needed to work towards regaining the ground that the
Congress has lost in the 1967 elections.
 For this, she undertook a series of reforms that gave the
government left orientation

 She introduced a Ten Point Programme that included –

• Social control of banks
• Nationalisation of General Insurance
• Ceiling of Urban property and income
• Public distribution of food grains
• Land reforms and,
• Provisions of house sites to the rural poor.

While the Syndicate leaders approved these reforms but they had
serious reservations about the same.
The major issue which led to the formal split of the congress
party in 1969 was the differences between Indira Gandhi and
the Syndicate which included K . Kamraj , S.K Patil and others.
It was a power struggle but Indira Gandhi converted it into an
ideological struggle by taking the following steps-
 She launched a series of initiatives to give the government a Left
orientation and introduced Ten Point Programme, which did not
go well with the Syndicate leaders.
 The factional rivalry between the Syndicate and Indira Gandhi
came in open in the Presidential election in 1969. The official
Congress candidate was N. Sanjeeva Reddy. Indira Gandhi,
however encourages V.V Giri to file nomination as an
independent candidate. The President issued a whip asking the
members to vote in favour of Sanjeeva Reddy.
 Supporters of Indira Gandhi requisitioned(demanded) a special
meeting of the party but this was refused.

 Indira Gandhi openly called for a ‘conscience vote’ i.e. MPs and
MLAs are free to vote the way they want.

 The election finally resulted in favour of V.V Giri as the

independent candidate.

 This defeat of official Candidate formalised the split in the party.

 CONGRESS(O) CONGRESS(R)

CONGRESS CONGRESS
(ORGANISATION) (REQUISITIONISTS)

OLD CONGRESS/ NEW CONGRESS/

SYNDICATE INDIRA GANDHI
In order to end her dependence on other
political parties, strengthen her party position
and to get popular mandate(approval) for her
programmes, Indira Gandhi’s government
recommended the dissolution of the Lok
Sabha in December 1970.
 The electoral contest appeared to be loaded against
Congress(R).

 All the major non-communist, non-Congress opposition parties

formed an electoral alliance known as the Grand Alliance.

 The SSP(Sanyukta Socialist Party), PSP(Praja Socialist Party),

Bhartiya Jana Sangh, Swatantra Party, Bharatiya Kranti Dal
came together under this umbrella.

 Indira Gandhi said the opposition had only one common

programme – INDIRA HATAO (Remove Indira)
 To overcome this ,Indira Gandhi came up with the
famous slogan – GARIBI HATAO.

 She focused on the growth of the public sector,

removal of disparities in income and opportunity and
abolition of princely privileges(Privy Purse)

 Through ‘Garibi Hatao ‘ she tried to generate support

base among the disadvanged, dalits , adivasis,
minorities, women and unemployed youth.
 The Congress(R)-CPI won the election with highest number of
votes.
 Indira Gandhi’s Congress(R) won 352 seat with 44% of the
popular votes on its own.
 Congress(O) won only 1/4th of votes with 16 seats.
 The Grand Alliance of the opposition proved to be a total
failure and was able score less than 40 seats.
 Indira Gandhi’s party was able to win most of the state
elections as well in 1972.
 Now, she was seen not only as the protector of the poor and
underprivileged, but also as a strong nationalist leader.