A group formed to contest elections and form a government is called a political party. The people involved in a political party agree on certain policies and programs. The goal of these programs and policies is to do good for society.
Individual political parties are a reflection of the fundamental political division of our society. A political party represents a particular part of the society, hence it comes with partisanship. The identity of a political party is determined by which section of the society it talks about, which policies it supports, and whose interests it talks about.
Roles of Political Parties in Election
The major roles played by any party are to fill political posts and use power. To do this, political parties do the following:
1. Contesting elections: Every political party contests elections. For this, political parties put their candidates in the electoral fray for different constituencies.
2. Policymaking: Political parties make their policies keeping in mind the public interest. Political parties keep their policies and programs in front of the public. This helps the public to make a choice. A political party does less to bring millions of crores of people with similar mindsets under one roof. When the public elects a party to form the government, then it expects that party to implement its policies and programs.
3. Lawmaking: The work of making laws is done by the legislature. Most of the members of the legislature are members of some political party. Therefore, political parties have a direct role in the law-making process.
4. Formation of Government: When a political party wins an election with the maximum number of seats, it forms the government. The executive is constituted by the people of the ruling party or coalition. The responsibility of different ministries is given to different politicians.
5. Role of Opposition: The political party that does not get a chance to form the government has to play the role of opposition.
6. Formation of Public Opinion: This is an important task of any political party. To build public opinion, parties raise burning issues in the legislature and media and then give air to those issues. Party workers spread all over the country and make the public aware of their issues.
7. Making people accessible to government machinery: The job of a political party is to act as a link between the government machinery and the people. By doing this, they reach the public welfare schemes to the people.
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