BackOn the fringes of politics
According to the Election Commission, no fewer than 1,593 unrecognized political parties have registered with itthere were only 322 at the end of 2009
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The Religion of Man Revolving Political Party of India. Baffling indeed, yet it is the name of a political party from 24 Parganas in West Bengal. While most media attention on the general election is being soaked up by the antics of national parties like the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there are a host of fringe political players who are more than just adding to the cacophony and colour of India’s election jamboree.
According to the Election Commission (EC), no fewer than 1,593 unrecognized political parties have registered with it—there were only 322 at the end of 2009.
There is a serious side to them.
With growing fragmentation of the polity, these fringe parties, some of whom are active in the current elections, can be of more than just mere nuisance value. Like many independent (non-party) contestants, they can also be hired by political parties to make things difficult for rivals.
To be sure, those associated with these smaller political parties believe that not being part of a mainstream political party gives them the freedom to pursue their own ideals and goals. They also add that not all of the fringe parties actually contest polls—in 2009, for instance, only a third of the 322 contested the general election according to EC data.
“Such parties cannot fulfil the classic role of the political party as an aggregator of policy preferences. Consolidation of political parties around policy issues is desirable, so long as the diverse segments of society are also properly represented," said Niraja Jayal, professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“They would create more fragmentation—but that is only if they are plausible competitors. Otherwise, they might be not very different from independent candidates," she added.
Any association can contest an election without being registered with the EC; however, doing so comes with its own risks—a registered political party can accept “any amount of contribution voluntarily offered" by any person or non-governmental company and is given preference for election symbols.
Applying to the EC is convenient and hassle-free—one reason why many register. A request can be made to the EC in a set format within a month of forming a party, together with a demand draft of ₹ 10,000 and some other registration requirements.
To each their own
Many of these smaller unrecognized registered political parties are individual-centric, issue-based outfits that are aligned to a particular social identity or simply a syndicate of individuals or associations who want to pursue a common political agenda.
One such political party which registered itself in 2008 was the Nav Bharat Democratic Party headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra. Earlier called the Professional Party of India, it is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Delhi.
“Nav Bharat is a political platform to identify, help field and elect credible people of the society. We go out and seek people who are potential candidates and they are mostly individuals out of the political system," R. K. Misra, national executive member of the party, said.
Misra, an Indian Institute of Technology and Harvard University alumnus, is himself contesting from Sitapur constituency in Uttar Pradesh and is all set to challenge the incumbent from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—once a regional party that rose to the ranks of a national party after successful electoral performances. The election symbol of Misra’s party is a writing desk.
Misra’s party marks a trend of professionals entering politics by forming political parties of their own.
Another such person is New Delhi-based doctor Sanjeev Chhiber, national president of the Naya Daur Party. Chhiber, who launched the party in 2010, has converted his private clinic in the national capital into a make-shift party office where medical literature lies strewn with election handbills.
The party, which also fielded candidates in last year’s Delhi Assembly elections, maintains a minimum standard for contestants—no criminal charges against them and no defectors from other parties.
“India is a country with many systemic flaws and it can be dealt only with a systemic cure," Chhiber, who speaks with clinical precision, said. Appropriately, the election symbol of his party is a stethoscope.
Their politics
The EC has three categories of political parties on its register: national parties (that are recognized in four or more states—there are only six of them), state parties that are mostly focused on a single state and finally, ‘unrecognized registered political parties’ that encompass the vast majority of fringe parties.
“Historically, such parties mostly emerged in states in which the Congress party in (late prime minister) Indira Gandhi’s time saw a lot of whimsical and arbitrary changes in chief ministers, and a lot of interference by the party high command in the state units of the Congress," Jayal said.
“In electoral terms, there is an incentive for such parties to mushroom wherever the margins of victory decline. So if political entrepreneurs can exploit the opportunity offered by such a scenario, they can leverage their success to bargain with parties of governments that need more seats," she said.
Some are sought out by mainstream parties.
“I believe that the environment in India is a conspiracy of big parties. If they act honestly, such a situation would not get created," said Khan, who is involved in the elections but has not fielded any candidate from his party in order to avoid a split in BSP votes. He claims his party is not community-specific and that it caters to the interests of anyone associated with it.
Khan drew the nation’s attention after meeting with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal last November and when he quit the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government in Uttar Pradesh over the Muzaffarnagar riots in August-September 2013.
To many of these fringe parties, AAP’s electoral success in Delhi is a source of inspiration—they now believe that there is political space in India for other political voices too.
AAP’s focus on fighting graft also seems to have influenced some of these parties. One of them is the Bihar-based Bharat Bhrashtachar Mitao Party. The trigger for the formation of the party was “rampant corruption in the poor state (Bihar)" and the belief that mainstream political parties could no longer rid the nation of corruption.
“When I was growing up, I realized politics in Bihar and elsewhere was ruled by money power and muscle power. There exists a great vacuum into which people like (social activist) Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal stepped in. It is only the smaller parties which do issue-based politics instead of personality-based ones," said Shiv Shankar Kumar, founding member of the Bharat Bhrashtachar Mitao Party which was registered in 2010.
The party’s election symbol is an envelope.
Kumar himself is contesting elections from the Gaya parliamentary seat for the second time.
The limitations
Misra of the Nav Bharat Democratic Party sums up the limitations of such parties: “The biggest limitations of smaller parties like ours is that we have no brand, there is a fund crunch, no one knows us and the media does not pay attention to us."
Chhiber said much of his party’s finances comes from his own savings. “We ask people for donations but very little comes our way, at least not enough to contest elections as huge as Lok Sabha. So much of the money comes from my own savings, this party is what I have dedicated everything to," said Chhiber, who keeps a huge donation box in his office.
There is also the challenge of facing criticism over whether such parties end up crowding the electoral space with very little to offer voters and only serving as a disruptive force.
Misra challenges the view, saying parties like his by no means over-populate what is a massive spectrum of politics and elections in India. In any case, “unless we bring our democratic system to a situation where only two to three parties can contest, you cannot stop a party from contesting elections," he said.
For some, however, the challenge lies in remaining patient and exuding optimism.
Kumar of the Bharat Bhrashtachar Mitao Party, for instance, failed once as an independent and then contested again from the same seat after forming a political party.
“People used to laugh at me when I was campaigning in 2009," he said. “But then I was learning. Now, I feel because of me contesting elections, other contestants are forced to talk about the development agenda in the constituency."
Kumar’s enthusiasm is impressive, given that in the previous Lok Sabha elections he could win only 0.61% of votes from the constituency.
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