In most electoral democracies, where the first-past-the-post system prevails, competition mostly results in monopolies, but India has been an outlier. This is mainly because its vast federal structure and diversity have led to the flourishing of several regional parties which have become dominant in their respective states. For Aam Aadmi Party Happen Recognized as a national party by the Election Commission of India (ECI) In this milieu – there are now six such – a creditable achievement for a force that emerged from a popular civil society movement during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance. From repeatedly winning Delhi and capturing Punjab to registering respectable vote shares in Gujarat and Goa, the party has emerged as an electoral alternative in some states where the Congress is weak. This has allowed it to cross the threshold set by the ECI for “national party” recognition. That said, the AAP’s distinguishing factor as a political force remains its record in Delhi, where its municipal work has won some praise as a party focused on governance. Nevertheless, the lack of a coherent ideology – it may tack on the right of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the appropriate time or occasionally on the left of the Congress, while its position on national and international issues remains untouched at best, and its commitment Secularism remains token in practice – to a limit that it may harm in the long run.
Three other parties have lost their “national party” tag – Communist Party of India (CPI), Trinamool Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The CPI has been in decline for decades, and even its limited electoral successes in states such as Kerala are the result of an alliance with a large Left ally in the CPI (Marxist). The conditions that necessitated the left split in the early 1960s are no longer relevant in a much changed world and the two left parties would be better off merging, at least for reasons related to ideological cohesion. The Trinamool and the NCP are confined to West Bengal and Maharashtra, even though they recently won a few seats in Meghalaya and Nagaland, respectively. The two parties originated in the 1990s due to their leaders’ differences with the Congress high command, but have since evolved separately. Unlike the NCP, the Trinamool has maintained a relatively hostile attitude towards the Congress. Its foray into Tripura turned out to be fruitless as the Congress managed to make a relative comeback as an opposition force, while the NCP’s differences with the Congress are no longer as prominent as they were in the 1990s after helping it grow at the expense of the Congress. Were taken