Important Terms

Political Parties: A "political party" is a political association or a voluntary group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government.

Election Commission: It is an independent multi-member body which is constituted for the superintendence, direction and conduct of elections.

Partisan: A person who is strongly committed to a party, group or faction. Partisanship is marked by a tendency to take a side and inability to take a balanced view on an issue.

One-Party/Mono Party: "Mono-party system" means a system in which only one party operates in the political system for various reasons. In this system there is no opposition, e.g., China.

Two-Party or Bi-Party System: A political system where there are two major parties. In this system power usually changes between two main parties, e.g., United Kingdom and United states of America.

Multi Party System: It is a political system where more than two parties exist and contest elections to come to power.

National Parties: Parties that are present in only one of the federal units and are countrywide parties known as national parties. These parties have their units in various states.

State or Regional Parties: The parties that is present in several or all units of the federation known as state or regional parties.

Recognised Political Parties: The parties which get recognition by the Election Commission, given election symbols, privileges and some other special election facilities are known as the recognised political parties.

Leftist Parties: Parties which are radical, ideological conservative in nature known as Leftist parties.

Rightist Parties: Parties which want a status Quo and are conservative known as Rightist parties.

Opposition: The political party or group of parties that form part of a legislature but are not in the government. They check the activities of the government.

Defection: It signifies, changing party allegiance from the party on which a person gets elected to a different party, i.e., members change their party for money, post, etc.

Affidavit: It is a signed document submitted to an officer, where a person makes a sworn statement regarding his/her personal information.

Ruling Party: Political party that runs government.