India has a multi-party system with recognition accorded to national and state level parties.

The
status is reviewed periodically by the Election Commission of India. Other political parties that wish to
contest local, state or national elections are required to be registered by the Election Commission of
India (ECI). Registered parties are upgraded as recognized national or state level parties based upon
objective criteria. A recognized party enjoys privileges like reserved party symbol,[A] free broadcast
time on state run television and radio, consultation in setting of election dates and giving inputs in
setting electoral rules and regulations. [1]
This listing is according to the Indian general election, 2014 and Legislative Assembly elections] and
any party aspiring to State or National party status must fulfil at least one of the concerned criteria. In
addition, national and state parties have to fulfill these conditions for all subsequent Lok Sabha or
State elections, or else they lose their status.[1] As of 16 September 2014, the total number of parties
registered was 1761, with six national, 49 state[2] and 1706 unrecognised parties.[3][4]
All registered parties contesting elections need to choose a symbol from a list of available symbols
offered by the EC. All 29 states of the country along with the union territories of Puducherry and the
National Capital Territory of Delhi have elected governments unless President's rule is imposed under
certain conditions.
National
A registered party is recognised as a National Party only if it fulfils any one of the following three
conditions:
The party wins 2% of seats in the Lok Sabha (as of 2014, 11 seats) from at least 3 different States.
At a General Election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party polls 6% of votes in four States
and in addition it wins 4 Lok Sabha seats.
A party gets recognition as State Party in four or more States.
Recognised national parties as of 16 September 2014
The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the two major parties in the Indian political system, along with
the Indian National Congress. As of 2015, it is the country's largest political party in terms of
representation in the national parliament and state assemblies, and it is the world's largest party in
terms of primary membership. The BJP is a right-wing party, with close ideological and organisational
links to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The BJP's origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee. After
the State of Emergency in 1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other parties to form the Janata
Party; it defeated the incumbent Congress party 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 BJP. Although initially unsuccessful, winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, it
grew in strength on the back of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Following victories in several state
elections and better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest party in the
parliament in 1996; however, it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its
government lasted only 13 days.
After the 1998 general election, the BJP-led coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
formed a government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for a year. Following fresh elections,
the NDA government, again headed by Vajpayee, lasted for a full term in office; this was the first nonCongress 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. Long time Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi led it to a landslide victory in the 2014 general election. Since that election, Modi leads
the NDA government as Prime Minister and as of March 2015, the alliance governs 13 states.
The official ideology of the BJP is "integral humanism", first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in
1965. The party expresses a commitment to Hindutva, and its policy has historically reflected Hindu
nationalist positions. The BJP advocates social conservatism and a foreign policy centred on
nationalist principles. Its key issues have included the abrogation of the special status to Jammu and
Kashmir, the building of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and the implementation of a uniform civil code.
However, the 19982004 NDA government did not pursue any of these controversial issues. It instead
focused on a largely neoliberal economic policy prioritizing globalisation and economic growth over
social welfare.
INC
The Indian National Congress (About this sound pronunciation (helpinfo)) (INC, often called the
Congress), is one of two major political parties in India; the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Congress is one of the largest and oldest democratically run political parties in the world.[12][not in
citation given] The party was founded in 1885 during the British Raj; its founders include Allan
Octavian Hume a prominent member of the Theosophical Society, Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw
Wacha. In the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries, Congress became a pivotal
participant in the Indian Independence Movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million
participants in its opposition to British colonial rule in India.
After independence in 1947, Congress became India's dominant political party; as of 2015, in the 15
general elections since independence, it has won an outright majority on six occasions and has led
the ruling coalition a further four times, heading the central government for 49 years. There have
been seven Congress Prime Ministers, the first being Jawaharlal Nehru (194764), and the most recent
Manmohan Singh (200414). The party's social liberal platform is generally considered to be on the
centre-left of Indian politics.[13]
From 2004 to 2014, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, a coalition of several regional
parties, formed the Indian government and was headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In
November 2014, the party was in power in ten states and had a majority in six Arunachal Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram. In Assam, Kerala and Uttarakhand it
shared power with its alliance partners. The Congress has previously directly ruled Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Goa. In the 2014 general election, the
Congress had its poorest post-independence general election performance, winning only 44 seats of
the 543-member house.
The Congress' social policy is based upon the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya the lifting up of all
sections of society which involves the improvement of the lives of economically underprivileged and
socially marginalised people. The party primarily endorses social liberalism seeking to balance
individual liberty and social justice, and secularism asserting the right to be free from religious rule
and teachings.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated CPI(M) or CPM) is a communist party in India. The
party emerged from a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964. The CPI(M) was formed at the
Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held in Calcutta from October 31 to November 7,
1964. The strength of CPI(M) is concentrated in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of
2015, CPI(M) is leading the state government in Tripura. It also leads the Left Front coalition of leftist
parties. As of 2013, CPI(M) claimed to have 1,065,406 members.[5]
CPI(M) is organised on the basis of democratic centralism, a principle conceived by Vladimir Lenin
which entails democratic and open discussion on policy on the condition of unity in upholding the
agreed upon policies. The highest body of the party is the Politburo.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a communist party in India. In the Indian Communist
movement, there are different views on exactly when the Communist Party of India was founded. The
date maintained as the foundation day by the CPI is 26 December 1925. However, the Communist
Party of India (Marxist), which separated from the CPI, claims that the party was founded in 1920.
CPI was recognised by the Election Commission of India as a 'National Party'. To date, CPI happens to
be the only national political party from India to have contested all the general elections using the
same electoral symbol. However, after the 2014 General Elections, CPI lost its status as a national
party owing to its inability to poll the bare minimum votes or win the minimum number of seats
required for the purpose.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national political party in India. It was formed mainly to represent
Bahujans (literally meaning "People in majority"), referring to people from the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBC) as well as minorities. The party claims to be
inspired by the philosophy of B. R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy &
Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj. The BSP was founded by charismatic leader Kanshi Ram in 1984, who
was succeeded by his protg Mayawati in 2003.[7] The party's political symbol is an elephant. The
party was the third most voted-for party in the 2014 Indian general election, but still failed to win any
seats in the 16th Lok Sabha.[8] The BSP has its main base in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is a centrist nationalist political party in India. Its youth wing is
the Nationalist Youth Congress. The NCP was formed on 25 May 1999, by Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma,
and Tariq Anwar after they were expelled from the Indian National Congress (INC) on 20 May 1999, for
disputing the right of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi to lead the party.[5] At the time of formation, the party
also absorbed Indian Congress (Socialist), which traced its origins to anti-coalition partner in the state

of Maharashtra in alliance with INC. On 20 June 2012, Sangma quit the NCP to contest in presidential
polls.