Proliferation of political parties – bane or boon?

Deepa Jeyakumar launched MGR Amma Deepa Peravi as a new initiative and before the dust could settle the latter’s husband K Madhavan has announced he would quit the newly started political party and start his own party. 

Starting a political party is a fundamental right and this comes under the famous six freedoms 19 (1) (c) which guarantees the Right to form Associations... and  the People’s Representative Act of 1951 gives all the details of anyone who wants to start a party. For starting a political party, one has to register with the Election Commission of India. Political parties are formed not all of a sudden but taking into consideration the political, social and economic conditions of a state. There must be a strong reason/s for starting a political party. If there is an issue affecting many and that has not been addressed by anyone, it can be a reason for starting a political party. There is a strong reason for the emergence of a political party as the jallikattu created a political space between the 2016 election and the death of the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the political chaos that followed.  

The proliferation of parties is an advantage as many diverse voices as possible are heard by the people in the legislature. Diversity and different political ideologies co-existing are a merit of the system. It can also pave the way for more voters’ turnout as each one has someone to represent them. NOTA may be less with more political parties participating in the elections. Elections in an ideal situation are fought on issues. Legislations are expected to be more of quality and substance as the parties in the legislature are supposed to give good inputs to the legislations. TN unfortunately has only four parties represented in the State Assembly. (The AIADMK, DMK, Congress and IUML) The quality of the debate and legislation will reflect the limitations of the Assembly with fewer parties. TN with its vast canvas of political parties and every shade of opinion represented by one political party or the other is a great advantage for the state and for the democracy. Like in the general election of 2016 when smaller parties and their alliances were wiped out by the political tsunami, one can see the havoc it has done in the legislature for quality debate, raising of issues and legislations. 

The disadvantages of having too many parties are that it will be difficult to evolve a consensus on important social, political and economic issues affecting the people. Smaller parties need support and thus the coalitions are formed and the parties enter and leave coalitions as and when they want. In the past, TN has witnessed smaller parties being part of a coalition but not in the government. They extended support from outside. 

The advantage of coalition government is building consensus politics. Political parties who are constituents of a coalition have to subscribe to this ideology in order to keep the coalition going. Ideology is also a dividing factor in the coalition politics. The coalition can either make small parties visible at the state level or remove them from the political map of the state. Like the 2016 election which eliminated many smaller parties from the political map of TN. 

In a by-election when more parties contest, the votes not only get divided but can also seal the fate of emerging new political parties and coalitions. RK Nagar by election will be an acid test for the new political parties— either for their existence, continuity or for their disappearance.