How to Set Up a Political Party in India

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Aspiring to set up a new political party ahead of federal polls in May? This may be your last chance; the Election Commission of India, the nodal-body for polls across the country, typically takes about four months to process new political entities.

For decades, the upper-middle-class has distanced itself from Indian politics, often deterred by its image as corruption-ridden. But the stunning political debut of the Aam Aadmi Party – a group born out of a wave of anticorruption protests across India in 2011 — inspired tens of thousands, including corporate bigwigs, to take a plunge into the world of politics.

From wading through hundreds of pages of guidelines to recruiting new members, creating a party from scratch can be a cumbersome, perhaps even frustrating affair, in India.

So, in the run-up to federal polls, India Real Time sets out an easy-to-read guide on how to form a party, with tips from political analysts, the Election Commission of India and founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party:

#1. Objective: Why set up a political party?

That’s the question you need to debate – several times over – before proceeding with any other steps mentioned in this post.

“Ask yourself, ‘What will the ideology of your party be? What are the basic issues your party would strive for? And at what level – national or local – would you set out to achieve them?’” B.G. Verghese, a political analyst at Center for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank, suggests.
India’s incumbent Congress party, formed in 1885, for instance spent its early years lobbying for independence from the British rule. India’s leading opposition, the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, was established in 1980 to serve the interests of the Hindu majority.

Meanwhile, the rookie Aam Aadmi Party, inspired by the anti-graft sentiment that gripped India in 2011, was launched to weed out corruption from the ranks of India’s officialdom.

“Without clear-cut goals, objectives, or ideologies, a political party is meaningless,” Mr. Verghese says.

#2. Name: What’s in a name?

“Everything,” according to Anurag Mittal, the former head of Association for Democratic Reforms, a New Delhi-based think-tank. The name of a party should resonate its objective and, as a result, help connect with its target electorate, he said.

The name “Aam Aadmi Party,” which translates to the “Common Man Party,” for instance, was picked to “connect with the man on street,” N. Dilip Kumar, one of the founding members of the party, said. “We wanted voters to know we’re ordinary people fighting for issues that plague the common man each day.”

The party’s acronym, AAP, translates to the Hindi word, “You,” which according to its leaders, suggests the party is people focused.

While the Aam Aadmi Party, much like the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, Hindi for the “Indian People’s Party,” chose a name with a broader national appeal, analysts say regional parties prefer to go for names in their local language. The Shiromani Akali Dal, the ruling-party in the northern state of Punjab, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling-party in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and its rival, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, are a few examples. Shiromani Akali Dal is Punjabi for the “Supreme Akali Party,” while Tamil parties, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, translate to the “All India Anna Dravidian Progress Federation” and “Dravidian Progress Federation,” respectively.

“This helps create a sense of identity with voters in each state,” Mr. Mittal said.

#3: Membership: The Election Commission of India mandates new parties have at least 100 members to apply for political certification.

Each member is required to hold an Indian voting card; implying individuals below 18 aren’t eligible. Other than that, however, there are no set rules on how or who to recruit.

“It’s up to every party to decide what criteria they want their members to fulfil,” K.F. Wilfred, the principal secretary of the commission, said.

To join India’s-ruling Congress party, for instance, an individual can approach leaders in his or her constituency — orally or through a written application – for membership, Rashid Alvi, a senior leader of the party, said. Local leaders then take a call on whether or not to recruit the applicant, a procedure that’s been criticized by political commentators.

Meanwhile, AAP, unlike most traditional parties, opened applications for those wanting to contest assembly elections in New Delhi late last year. In a 12-page application form, similar to college admissions, the party asked question ranging from candidates’ strengths and weaknesses to views on decentralization of power.

But the real challenge isn’t recruiting an initial batch of members, Mr. Kumar of the AAP says. “Channeling each of those members is the tougher part,” he says. Be ready to have a plan-of-action for each member you recruit, he advises, otherwise you may end up losing a few to your political rivals.

#4. Registration: In its 21-page registration application – a prerequisite for new parties to contest polls – the commission asks leaders to include the party name, key objectives and list at least 100 members, including office bearers. The application, with a fee of 10,000 rupees or about $162, must be submitted to the commission within 30 days of the party’s formation.

Each office bearer is required to furnish details about their, and their spouse and children’s, investments and assets, including cash, jewelry stashed away in safes, and the market value of properties owned.

Representatives must then issue notices in newspapers announcing their intention to form a new political party. The commission allows a 30-day window for the public to raise objections, Mr. Wilfred, who also heads the division registering new political parties, said.

If no objections are raised, the commission scrutinizes affidavits and documents submitted by the party. Representatives can expect to receive a registration confirmation four to five months later.

More than 1,500 political parties are currently registered in India, about 400 of which were formed within the last five years, according to Mr. Wilfred.

#5. Symbol: Now the fun part.Once the party appears on the rolls of the commission, leaders are asked to pick an election symbol, one that represents them at the ballot box on voting day.

Available: 75 symbols, including a bewildering gallery of household items– a cupboard, a television, a frying pan and a pressure cooker to name a few – as well as a “lady purse” which looks like a handbag to us, a cake (our personal favorite), and a scoop of ice cream.


These symbols were first drawn by the commission ahead of India’s inaugural election in 1951, when about one in five Indians could read, Mr. Wilfred said. Easy-to-identify symbols, he said, helped parties connect with illiterate voters. The commission has, in recent years, added more technologically up-to-date symbols such as an airplane, a diesel pump, a camera and a calculator to list. There’s no cell phone or iPad on there though. Click here to view all symbols available.

Don’t want any of these symbols to be the face of your party? Pick one of your own and submit a sketch to the commission for approval.

But Mr. Wilfred cautions that symbols with religious connotations — a moon, a cross, a trishul, or Hindu trident, for instance — would be rejected. A reference to caste isn’t acceptable either.

Political analysts say a symbol, like a name, should speak to voters about the hopes and aspirations of a new party.

The Aam Aadmi Party, for example, selected the broom. This was in line with their goal to cleanse Indian politics, or sweep corruption out of the ranks of the government.

#6: An Old-School Yet New-Age Campaign: Members? Check. Registration. Check. Symbol? Check.

Now,all that’s left is an electoral win, which is why you founded a party in the first place. Of course, there’s no magical formula to hit the right chord with voters. But analysts say keeping abreast with the latest channels of communications could go a long way to connect with voters – both young and old.

What worked in favor of the Aam Aadmi Party, experts say, is their engagement with young and middle-class voters over social media, a medium most traditional parties, who rely more on door-to-door campaigning, failed to capitalize on.

Rahul Gandhi, widely-tipped to be Congress’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 polls, doesn’t have a Twitter account, for instance. Meanwhile, AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal, who thrashed Mr. Gandhi’s Congress party in New Delhi, tweets on topics ranging from devolving government to corruption for his 1.1 million followers.

“It has to be a mix of both,” Mr. Kumar of AAP says. “Traditional practices such as public rallies and door-to-door campaigns are a must, but for a winning touch, that needs to go hand-in-hand with new-age techniques — a quirky social media campaign for one — to connect with the new generation of voters,” he added.


How to Set Up a Political Party in India - India Real Time - WSJ

 

[vicky sen]

Aspiring to set up a new political party ahead of federal polls in May? This may be your last chance; the Election Commission of India, the nodal-body for polls across the country, typically takes about four months to process new political entities.

For decades, the upper-middle-class has distanced itself from Indian politics, often deterred by its image as corruption-ridden. But the stunning political debut of the Aam Aadmi Party – a group born out of a wave of anticorruption protests across India in 2011 — inspired tens of thousands, including corporate bigwigs, to take a plunge into the world of politics.

From wading through hundreds of pages of guidelines to recruiting new members, creating a party from scratch can be a cumbersome, perhaps even frustrating affair, in India.

So, in the run-up to federal polls, India Real Time sets out an easy-to-read guide on how to form a party, with tips from political analysts, the Election Commission of India and founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party:

#1. Objective: Why set up a political party?

That’s the question you need to debate – several times over – before proceeding with any other steps mentioned in this post.

“Ask yourself, ‘What will the ideology of your party be? What are the basic issues your party would strive for? And at what level – national or local – would you set out to achieve them?’” B.G. Verghese, a political analyst at Center for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank, suggests.
India’s incumbent Congress party, formed in 1885, for instance spent its early years lobbying for independence from the British rule. India’s leading opposition, the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, was established in 1980 to serve the interests of the Hindu majority.

Meanwhile, the rookie Aam Aadmi Party, inspired by the anti-graft sentiment that gripped India in 2011, was launched to weed out corruption from the ranks of India’s officialdom.

“Without clear-cut goals, objectives, or ideologies, a political party is meaningless,” Mr. Verghese says.

#2. Name: What’s in a name?

“Everything,” according to Anurag Mittal, the former head of Association for Democratic Reforms, a New Delhi-based think-tank. The name of a party should resonate its objective and, as a result, help connect with its target electorate, he said.

The name “Aam Aadmi Party,” which translates to the “Common Man Party,” for instance, was picked to “connect with the man on street,” N. Dilip Kumar, one of the founding members of the party, said. “We wanted voters to know we’re ordinary people fighting for issues that plague the common man each day.”

The party’s acronym, AAP, translates to the Hindi word, “You,” which according to its leaders, suggests the party is people focused.

While the Aam Aadmi Party, much like the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, Hindi for the “Indian People’s Party,” chose a name with a broader national appeal, analysts say regional parties prefer to go for names in their local language. The Shiromani Akali Dal, the ruling-party in the northern state of Punjab, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling-party in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and its rival, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, are a few examples. Shiromani Akali Dal is Punjabi for the “Supreme Akali Party,” while Tamil parties, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, translate to the “All India Anna Dravidian Progress Federation” and “Dravidian Progress Federation,” respectively.

“This helps create a sense of identity with voters in each state,” Mr. Mittal said.

#3: Membership: The Election Commission of India mandates new parties have at least 100 members to apply for political certification.

Each member is required to hold an Indian voting card; implying individuals below 18 aren’t eligible. Other than that, however, there are no set rules on how or who to recruit.

“It’s up to every party to decide what criteria they want their members to fulfil,” K.F. Wilfred, the principal secretary of the commission, said.

To join India’s-ruling Congress party, for instance, an individual can approach leaders in his or her constituency — orally or through a written application – for membership, Rashid Alvi, a senior leader of the party, said. Local leaders then take a call on whether or not to recruit the applicant, a procedure that’s been criticized by political commentators.

Meanwhile, AAP, unlike most traditional parties, opened applications for those wanting to contest assembly elections in New Delhi late last year. In a 12-page application form, similar to college admissions, the party asked question ranging from candidates’ strengths and weaknesses to views on decentralization of power.

But the real challenge isn’t recruiting an initial batch of members, Mr. Kumar of the AAP says. “Channeling each of those members is the tougher part,” he says. Be ready to have a plan-of-action for each member you recruit, he advises, otherwise you may end up losing a few to your political rivals.

#4. Registration: In its 21-page registration application – a prerequisite for new parties to contest polls – the commission asks leaders to include the party name, key objectives and list at least 100 members, including office bearers. The application, with a fee of 10,000 rupees or about $162, must be submitted to the commission within 30 days of the party’s formation.

Each office bearer is required to furnish details about their, and their spouse and children’s, investments and assets, including cash, jewelry stashed away in safes, and the market value of properties owned.

Representatives must then issue notices in newspapers announcing their intention to form a new political party. The commission allows a 30-day window for the public to raise objections, Mr. Wilfred, who also heads the division registering new political parties, said.

If no objections are raised, the commission scrutinizes affidavits and documents submitted by the party. Representatives can expect to receive a registration confirmation four to five months later.

More than 1,500 political parties are currently registered in India, about 400 of which were formed within the last five years, according to Mr. Wilfred.

#5. Symbol: Now the fun part.Once the party appears on the rolls of the commission, leaders are asked to pick an election symbol, one that represents them at the ballot box on voting day.

Available: 75 symbols, including a bewildering gallery of household items– a cupboard, a television, a frying pan and a pressure cooker to name a few – as well as a “lady purse” which looks like a handbag to us, a cake (our personal favorite), and a scoop of ice cream.


These symbols were first drawn by the commission ahead of India’s inaugural election in 1951, when about one in five Indians could read, Mr. Wilfred said. Easy-to-identify symbols, he said, helped parties connect with illiterate voters. The commission has, in recent years, added more technologically up-to-date symbols such as an airplane, a diesel pump, a camera and a calculator to list. There’s no cell phone or iPad on there though. Click here to view all symbols available.

Don’t want any of these symbols to be the face of your party? Pick one of your own and submit a sketch to the commission for approval.

But Mr. Wilfred cautions that symbols with religious connotations — a moon, a cross, a trishul, or Hindu trident, for instance — would be rejected. A reference to caste isn’t acceptable either.

Political analysts say a symbol, like a name, should speak to voters about the hopes and aspirations of a new party.

The Aam Aadmi Party, for example, selected the broom. This was in line with their goal to cleanse Indian politics, or sweep corruption out of the ranks of the government.

#6: An Old-School Yet New-Age Campaign: Members? Check. Registration. Check. Symbol? Check.

Now,all that’s left is an electoral win, which is why you founded a party in the first place. Of course, there’s no magical formula to hit the right chord with voters. But analysts say keeping abreast with the latest channels of communications could go a long way to connect with voters – both young and old.

What worked in favor of the Aam Aadmi Party, experts say, is their engagement with young and middle-class voters over social media, a medium most traditional parties, who rely more on door-to-door campaigning, failed to capitalize on.

Rahul Gandhi, widely-tipped to be Congress’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 polls, doesn’t have a Twitter account, for instance. Meanwhile, AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal, who thrashed Mr. Gandhi’s Congress party in New Delhi, tweets on topics ranging from devolving government to corruption for his 1.1 million followers.

“It has to be a mix of both,” Mr. Kumar of AAP says. “Traditional practices such as public rallies and door-to-door campaigns are a must, but for a winning touch, that needs to go hand-in-hand with new-age techniques — a quirky social media campaign for one — to connect with the new generation of voters,” he added.


How to Set Up a Political Party in India - India Real Time - WSJ

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