Political parties are an established part of modern mass democracy, and
the conduct of elections in India is largely dependent on the behaviour
of political parties. Although many candidates for Indian elections are
independent, the winning candidates for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha
elections usually stand as members of political parties, and opinion
polls suggest that people tend to vote for a party rather than a
particular candidate. Parties offer candidates organisational support,
and by offering a broader election campaign, looking at the record of
government and putting forward alternative proposals for government,
help voters make a choice about how the government is run.
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Political parties have to be registered with the Election Commission.
The Commission determines whether the party is structured and committed
to principles of democracy, secularism and socialism in accordance with
the Indian Constitution and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and
integrity of India. Parties are expected to hold organisational
elections and have a written constitution. The Anti-defection law,
passed in 1985, prevents MPs or MLAs elected as candidates from one
party forming or joining a new party, unless they comprise more than
one-third of the original party in the legislature.
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According to certain criteria, set by the Election Commission regarding
the length of political activity and success in elections, parties are
categorised by the Commission as National or State parties, or simply
declared registered-unrecognised parties. How a party is classified
determines a partys right to certain privileges, such as access to
electoral rolls and provision of time for political broadcasts on the
state-owned television and radio stations - All India Radio and
Doordarshan - and also the important question of the allocation of the
party symbol. Party symbols enable illiterate voters to identify the
candidate of the party they wish to vote for. National parties are given
a symbol that is for their use only, throughout the country. State
parties have the sole use of a symbol in the state in which they are
recognised as such Registered-unrecognised parties can choose a symbol
from a selection of free symbols.
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There are tight legal limits on the amount of money a candidate can
spend during the election campaign. In most Lok Sabha constituencies the
limit as recently amended in December, 1997 is Rs 15,00,000/-, although
in some States the limit is Rs 6,00,000/- (for Vidhan Sabha elections
the highest limit is Rs 6,00,000/-, the lowest Rs 3,00,000/-). Although
supporters of a candidate can spend as much as they like to help out
with a campaign, they have to get written permission of the candidate,
and whilst parties are allowed to spend as much money on campaigns as
they want, recent Supreme Court judgements have said that, unless a
political party can specifically account for money spent during the
campaign, it will consider any activities as being funded by the
candidates and counting towards their election expenses. The
accountability imposed on the candidates and parties has curtailed some
of the more extravagant campaigning that was previously a part of Indian
elections.
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By a recent order of the Election Commission, all recognised National
and State parties have been allowed free access to the state owned
electronic media-AIR and Doordarshan- on an extensive scale for their
campaigns during elections. The total free time allocated extends over
122 hours on the state owned Television and Radio channels. This is
allocated equitably by combining a base limit and additional time linked
to poll performance of the party in recent election.
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