The Significance of Political Parties in India

In one line

Parties matter in India because the Constitution's machinery cannot work without them and because, since 1985, a party's direction binds the member it elected on pain of losing the seat.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: political parties are significant in India because the parliamentary executive depends on a stable legislative majority which only parties can supply; because the electorate's choice of a government is made through party labels rather than through individual candidates; because parties recruit almost the whole political leadership; because they organise the opposition without which accountability is impossible; and because, since the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act 1985 inserted the Tenth Schedule, a legislator who votes against the direction of the party that returned them may be disqualified, which converts party discipline from a convention into a rule of law.

What parties supply that the Constitution assumes

The Constitution as adopted did not mention parties and cannot work without them, and setting out why is the strongest opening an answer on this topic can have.

A government that commands confidence. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House and holds office only while it commands a majority. Without parties there is no way to assemble a stable majority from several hundred individuals, and no way for the electorate to know in advance who will govern.

A choice the voter can make. A voter chooses one candidate in one constituency and is in fact choosing a government. That is possible only because the candidate carries a party label that carries a programme and a prospective Prime Minister or Chief Minister.

An opposition. Scrutiny, questions, committee work and the readiness to take office all require an organised alternative, and only a party supplies it.

Leadership. Almost every person who holds ministerial office in India arrived through a party organisation.

Aggregation across an extraordinarily diverse country. A party seeking a majority in India must assemble support across languages, religions, castes and regions, and the necessity of doing so is itself a moderating force.

Continuity. Governments change and parties persist, so a programme can outlast a term.

The Tenth Schedule, which is where parties enter the law

What it does. The Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act 1985 inserted the Tenth Schedule. Paragraph 2 disqualifies a member of either House of Parliament or of a State Legislature who voluntarily gives up membership of the party which set them up as a candidate, or who votes or abstains contrary to any direction issued by that party without prior permission and without being condoned within fifteen days. It also covers an independent who joins a party after the election, and a nominated member who joins one after six months. Paragraph 6 gives the decision on disqualification to the Speaker or Chairman and declares it final, and paragraph 7 purported to exclude the jurisdiction of all courts.