The representatives of Lok Sabha are mostly drawn from political parties playing a major role in the governance of the country. During last 70 years, there have been changes in the participation of political parties in elections and voting behaviour of the citizens of the country. In the context, it is important to look into our electoral system and representation of political parties.
The first general election of 1951- 1952 witnessed participation of 54 political parties and subsequently, the number of political parties kept increasing so that it reached 464 in last 2014 elections out of total 1,687 registered parties in the country including six national parties, 47 State parties and 1,634 unrecognized parties. The lowest number of participation was in 1957, i.e., only 16 parties and subsequently in 1962 (28). In 1967, it was 26, 1971 (44), 1977 (54), 1980 (38), 1984 (37), 1989 (115), 1991 (147), 1996 (211), 1998 (178), 1999 (171), 2004 (215) and 2009 election, the number was 363 out of 1,060 registered parties.
Since 1991 the emergence of coalition and alliance politics has facilitated for a strong presence of State/regional parties. The most important observation of election results shows that no single party has got more than 50 per cent of vote share of the total polled votes though they got more than 50 per cent of the seats.
The coalition politics of last 20 years have provided a stable Government both by the UPA and the NDA. Though the reasons of growth of number of political parties are many but this has contributed to fractured mandate under the Fist Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system where parties with less than 50 per cent of vote share formed the Government.
A major national ruling party such as Congress has never achieved 50 per cent of the vote share since 1952 but the only exception was in 1984 when it got the all-time high per cent which is just close to 50.
The Congress has governed the country for maximum time consecutively in 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967 and 1971 for five times but the party’s vote share was always below 50 per cent even during Jawaharlal Nehru’s period. It was 45.7 per cent, 47.8 per cent, 44.7per cent, 40.8 per cent and 43.7 per cent respectively. The vote share of Congress has reduced to below 35 per cent in 1977, but again increased to 43 per cent in 1980. It further increased to all time maximum 48.1 per cent in 1984 and again it was reduced to 39.5 per cent in 1989. In the 1991 general election the vote share of the party was 36.4 per cent. The vote share of 1996 election was 28.3 per cent and 1998 it was reduced to 25.8 per cent. The vote share of 2004 election was 26.5 per cent, in 2009 it was 28.55 per cent and in 2014 it was 19.31 per cent which is all time low with only 44 seats. Many historical political factors have influenced the voters in different time to cast their vote in favour of the Congress.
The vote share of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founded by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in 1951 was only 3.06 per cent of vote with 3 seats in 1952 election. Later, the vote share of BJP (Jan Sangh became BJP later) was 20 per cent in 1991, 20.3 per cent in 1996, 25.6 per cent in 1998, 23.8 per cent in 1999 and 22.2 per cent in 2004, 18.80 per cent in 2009 and 31 per cent in 2014 which is all time high and captured 52 per cent of the total seats.
Dr BR Ambedker’s Sc heduled Castes Federation and later Republican Party of India (RPI) got 2.38 per cent of vote share with 2 seats in 1952. The BSP has emerged as a national party under the leadership of Kanshi Ram in 1984 and became the third largest national party of the country in terms of percentage of votes polled in last elections. The party polled 4.14 per cent of vote in the last 2014 general election but got no seats in the Lok Sabha. In 2004, the party polled 5.33 per cent of votes with 19 MPs and in 2009 election the party got 6.17 per cent votes with all time high of 21 MPs in the Lok Sabha. Even in the last 2017 Uttar Pradesh State election, the BSP emerged as second largest party in terms of vote share of 22.24 per cent votes but winning only 19 seats in the State Assembly.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) with 3.29 per cent of vote share won 16 seats in 1952 election and was the main Opposition led by Shripad Amrit Dange, elected from Mumbai, in the first Lok Sabha of India. The other parties such as Forward Block and RSP got 0.9 and 0.44 per cent of vote share with 1 and 3 seats respectively in 1952.
The vote share of CPI is 0.65 per cent in the last general election of 2014. Coming to the participation of voters of the country, the trend shows that in spite of voter awareness programme the voting percentage has not increased substantially. The voter turnout was 61.16 per cent in the first general election and it increased to 63.73 per cent in 1957 and again decreased to 55.42 per cent in 1962. During last three elections of 2004, 2009 and 2014, the voter turnout has been 58.7, 58.21 and 66.40 per cent respectively.
The voter turnout of 2014 election is all time high but on an average about 35 to 45 per cent of voters did not cast their vote between 1952 and 2014.
The important concern has been the participation of women in governance as the trend shows women have been under represented in political parties and also governance.
A report of the Election Commission of India on voter turnout shows that the female voter percentage is less than male voters.
The under representation of women and inadequate participation has its ramifications over the social and political system which violates gender justice and dignity of women as equal partners of democracy and inclusive growth.
It is also reported that during elections there has been violence and discrimination being practiced against the poor and marginalised sections and minorities who are being forced to vote against their free choice.
The communal and casteist forces engineered violence before the poll to terrorize the voters. Usually women do not come out during poll violence.
The participation of political parties and voters is important for strengthening democracy and an inclusive and transparent governance in a country like India with presence of huge diversity among voters based on caste, ethnicity, religious identities and socio-economic and educational status.
In order to ensure representation of political parties in governance as per their vote share, Propositional Representation Electoral System has been proposed as an alternative for a long time. But the party list PR system needs State funding and a transparent inter-party democracy system in practice to give representation to all and to counter the hegemony of family rule, caste and religious biases and the direct influence of funding by corporates to political parties.
Because, baring a few exceptions, a majority of the political parties are being funded by the corporates, particularly to fight elections, many deserving and well-meaning candidates are being silently pushed out of politics because of lack of resources to meet the election expenses.
(manasbbsr15@gmail.com)