MCQs on Political Parties and Elections of India

• The Representation of the People Act was passed in 1951.
  • Representation of Peoples Act 1951 provides for the actual conduct of elections in India.
  • Act deals with the election of the Parliament and State Legislatures, the qualifications and disqualifications for membership of Parliament and state legislatures
  • It was introduced in Parliament by the then law minister Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
  • It was enacted under Article 327 of the Indian Constitution before the first general election in India.
  • Representation of People’s Act contains 13 parts.
• Articles 324 to 329 deals with the electoral system in India.
• The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced by Varun Gandhi in Lok Sabha.

• Veer Bharat Samaj was established in 1910.
• Vijay Singh Pathik (1882–1954), also known as Rashtriya Pathik.
• His real name was Bhoop Singh Gurjar.
• He was jailed for having led the Kisan agitation in Bijoliya and kept at special jail created in the Tehsil building of Todgarh.
• Pathik made people feel that women and men's equality are necessary to develop a prosperous society.
• The Government of India issued a postage stamp to pay tribute to him.
• He died in Ajmer in 1954, when Rajasthan state is formed.

• Gautam Gambhir had won the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency seat.
• He had defeated Congress candidate Arvinder Singh Lovely by 3,91,222 votes.
• BJP alone fetched 302 seats out of 541 Lok Sabha seats and formed the government for the second time.

• South Delhi - Ramesh Bidhuri of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections beat Raghav Chadha of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by receiving 56.58% of the votes.
• West Delhi - Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections beat Mahabal Mishra of the Indian National Congress (INC) by receiving 60.05% of the votes.

• "None of the Above" (or NOTA) has been provided as an option in 2013.
• The 'None of the Above' option, simply put, gives the voter the right to express a negative opinion by not selecting any of the candidates in the fray.
• While it may seem that NOTA has been around for a long time, it actually came into force only in 2013.

• The first time it was used was during the Assembly elections held in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Delhi.
• On 27 September 2013, the Supreme court of India ruled that the right to register a "none of the above" vote in elections should apply, while ordering the Election Commission to provide a button for the same in the electronic voting machines.
• The option of NOTA for Lok Sabha and assembly elections as prescribed by the SC in 2013.
• The option of NOTA in Rajya Sabha polls was introduced by the EC in 2014.

• The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is one of the national parties of India.
  • It was formed at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held in Calcutta in 1964.
  • Hammer and Sickle is the party symbol of the Communist Party of India (M).
  • The CPI(M) has representation in the legislative assemblies in the states of Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha & Maharashtra.
  • All India Democratic Women's Association is the women's wing of the CPIM (M).

• 'Lotus flower' is the party symbol of the Bhartiya Janta Party.
• 'Elephant' is the party symbol of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
• 'Broom' is the party symbol of the Aam Aadmi Party.

• Started in 1980, Bachpan Bachao Andolan is India’s largest movement for the protection of children and works with government agencies and policy makers to strengthen the system.
• Kailash Satyarthi is the founder of the movement.
• He is a Nobel Peace Laureate, who envisions a world where all children are free, safe, healthy, receive quality education, and have the opportunity to realise their potential.

• The government has brought video streaming over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Hotstar, and others under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

• These platforms offer a range of content and use artificial intelligence to suggest users the content they are likely to view based on their past viewership on the platform.
• So far in India, there are no laws or rules regulating OTT platforms as it is a relatively new medium of entertainment.

• In the 2019 general elections, ​Indian National Congress won 52 Lok Sabha seats.
• Lok Sabha Elections 2019 was held in 7 phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019.
• Total voter turnout was 67%.

Details of seats won by Parties:

The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM):

• It is located in Mumbai, under Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Department of Commerce is another department under the Ministry of Commerce. So, option 3 is NOT correct.
• Patent:
  • It is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention.
  • An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem and is a product or a process.
  • Patents are a form of intellectual property.
  • The Controller General supervises the working of the Patents Act, 1970, as amended, the Designs Act, 2000, and the Trade Marks Act, 1999.
  • It also renders advice to the Government on matters relating to these subjects.
  • In order to protect the Geographical Indications of goods, a Geographical Indications Registry has been established in Chennai to administer the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 under the CGPDTM.

In the context of Elections in India, the term VVPAT stands for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail.

• VVPAT is the system that allows voters to verify their votes.
• The VVPAT machine prints a slip along with the name of the candidate and the corresponding election symbol and automatically drops it in a sealed box.
• It was first introduced in India in 2013.
• VVPAT was first used in Noksen (assembly constituency) in Nagaland.
• It can be accessed by polling officers only.
• During the 2019 general election, VVPAT was introduced in all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

• The Representation of the People Act was passed in 1951.
  • Representation of Peoples Act 1951 provides for the actual conduct of elections in India.
  • Act deals with the election of the Parliament and State Legislatures, the qualifications, and disqualifications for membership of Parliament and state legislatures
  • It was introduced in Parliament by the then law minister Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
  • It was enacted under Article 327 of the Indian Constitution before the first general election in India.
  • Representation of the People’s Act contains 13 parts.
• Articles 324 to 329 deal with the electoral system in India.
• The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced by Varun Gandhi in Lok Sabha.

• The context of Indian democracy allows people to choose their representatives.
• Democracy is a universal value based on the freely expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural system .
• Essential elements of democracy:
  • Freedom and dignity of the citizens.
  • Respect for human rights.
  • Periodic, Free and Fair elections by universal suffrage.
• India in parliamentary democracy has a federal form of government at Central and State legislature to states w.r.t division of power between centres and states.
• "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people" was said by Abraham Lincoln.

• The first General Elections of India started on 25th October 1951 and continued till 21st February 1952.
• Elections were held on the basis of universal adult suffrage and anyone over the age of 21 years could cast his/her franchise.
• Before the elections, a mock election was held in September 1951 since most people of the country were unfamiliar with the election process.
• The INC won the elections in a big way.
• The first Election Commissioner of India was Sukumar Sen.
• Some Prominent winners were Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sucheta Kripalani, Gulzari Lal Nanda, Kakasaheb Kalelkar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, etc

• Shyam Saran Negi was an Indian school teacher in Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh, who cast the first vote in the 1951 general election in India.

• Pressure groups play an important role in the current political system in that it is these organisations that attempt to influence public opinion and shape policy in relation to a particular issue.
• A pressure group is an organised group of people who are active in pursuing common interests.
• Pressure groups try to bring a change in public policy by exerting pressure on the government.
• The pressure groups are also called interest groups or vested groups.
• They do not have direct political party power.
• They are concerned with specific programs and issues and their activities are confined to the protection and promotion of the interests of their members by pressuring the government.
• The pressure groups influence the policy-making in the government through legal and legitimate methods like lobbying, correspondence, publicity, propagandising, petitioning, public debating, legislations, etc.

• Business Groups:
  • FICCI
  • ASSOCHAM etc
• Trade Unions:
  • AITUC
  • INTUC
  • Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS)
• Professional Groups:
  • Bar Council of India (BCI)
• Agrarian Groups-
  • All India Kisan Sabha
  • Bharatiya Kisan Union etc
• Student’s Organisations:
  • Akhila Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
  • All India Students Federation (AISF)
  • National Students Union of India (NSUI)
• Religious Groups:
  • Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS),
  • Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),
  • Jamaat-e-Islami, etc.

• Linguistic Groups:
  • Tamil Sangh
  • Tribal Groups – National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)
  • Tribal National Volunteers
  • Tribal League of Assam, etc.
• Ideology based Groups:
  • Narmada Bachao Andolan
  • Chipko Movement.
• Anomic Groups:
  • Naxalite Groups
  • United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)

• Types of Pressure Groups:
  • Institutional Interest Groups
  • Associational Interest Group
  • Non-Associational Interest Groups
  • Anomic Interest Groups

• The Indian National Congress was founded in Bombay in December 1885.
• The Indian National Congress (INC) has seen a steady number of splits and breakaway factions.
• Some of the breakaway organizations have thrived as independent parties, some have become defunct, while others have merged with the parent party or other political parties.

• Communist Party of India — Marxist (CPI-M) emerged from a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964.
• The CPI(M) was formed in Calcutta from 31 October to 7 November 1964.
• The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was formed on 25 May 1999, by Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar after they were expelled from the Indian National Congress (INC) on 20 May 1999.
• The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was founded in 1984 by Kanshi Ram.

• The first-time use of EVMs occurred in the general election in Kerala in May 1982; however, the absence of a specific law prescribing its use led to the Supreme Court striking down that election.
• Subsequently, in 1989, the Parliament amended the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to create a provision for the use of EVMs in the elections.
• A general consensus on its introduction could be reached only in 1998 and these were used in 25 Legislative Assembly constituencies spread across three states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

• The Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), the replacement of the ballot box is a mainstay in the electoral process.
• First conceived in 1977 in the Election Commission, the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL), Hyderabad was assigned the task to design and develop it.
• In 1979 a prototype was developed, which was demonstrated by the Election Commission before the representatives of political parties on 6th August 1980.
• The Bharat Electronic Ltd. (BEL), Bangalore, another public-sector undertaking, was co-opted along with ECIL to manufacture EVMs once a broad consensus was reached on its introduction.

• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel:
  • He is popularly known as the Iron Man of India.
  • The Statue of Unity is built in dedication to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
  • He was India’s first Deputy Prime Minister and first Home Minister.
  • Since 2014, October 31 is being celebrated as ''National Unity Day'' to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
• Morarji Desai:
  • He was the fourth Prime Minister of India (1977-1979).
  • He was born in Bhadeli village, now in Gujarath.
  • He was the first non-congress to hold such a position.
  • He was also the oldest person to become Prime Minister of India.
• Jagjivan Ram:
  • He was popularly known as Babuji.
  • He was the fourth Deputy Prime Minister of India.
  • During his tenure as Defense Minister, the Indo-Pak war of 1971 took place.
• Charan Singh:
  • He was the fifth Prime Minister of India (1979-1980).
  • He is often referred to as the champion of India's peasants.
  • He was the third Deputy Prime Minister of India.

• As many as seventeen General Elections to the Lok Sabha have been held till date.
• The seventeenth General Elections were held from 11 April to 19 May 2019.
• The Bharatiya Janata Party having 303 Members is the largest party in the Seventeenth Lok Sabha followed by the Indian National Congress having 52 Members.
• There are 541 MPs at present in the 17^th Lok Sabha.
• Shri Om Birla is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

• Telugu Desam Party is an Indian State Political Party is led by N. Chandra Babu Naidu.
• In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Telugu Desam Party is a regional Indian political party active in the southern states.
• The party was founded on 29 March 1982 by N. T. Rama Rao. Since 1995, the party has been led by the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu.
• The headquarters for the party is situated at NTR Bhavan in Hyderabad.
• In 1983, within nine months of the party's founding, Rama Rao became Andhra Pradesh's 10th Chief Minister, thus establishing the first non-Indian National Congress (INC) government in Andhra Pradesh. From 1984 to 1989, the TDP was the first regional party to become the largest opposition party at the 8th Lok Sabha.
• The TDP left the National Democratic Alliance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16 March 2018 (NDA).

• The founder of All India Forward Bloc was Subhas Chandra Bose.
• In India Against Corruption movement organised by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP(Aam Aadmi Party) has its roots.
• Asom Gana Parishad(AGP) was the result of the six-year Assam Agitation led by the All Assam Students' Union against illegal infiltration into Assam by foreigners from Bangladesh.

• The " All India Youth Federation" was a youth organization founded on May 3, 1959.
• The organization is a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
• The first conference of this organization took place from April 28 to May 3 1959 in Delhi.
• The conference lasted for 60 days and was attended by 250 delegates.
• The importance of the conference can be seen as it received greetings from the Vice president of India Dr. Radhakrishnan.
• Some important issues that were discussed in the conference included -

1. Whether the AIYF should propagate socialism as one of its main aims.
2. The attitude to generate political questions and political parties.

• Till now, a total of 15 conferences have been held.
• The president of the organization is Aftab Alam Khan.
• The General Secretary of the organization Thirumalai Raman.

• A pressure group is a group of people who are organised actively for promoting and defending their common interest.
• It is called so, as it attempts to bring a change in public policy by exerting pressure on the government. It acts as a liaison between the government and its members.
• The pressure groups are also called interest groups or vested groups.
• The pressure groups influence the policy-making and policy implementation in the government through legal and legitimate methods like lobbying, correspondence, publicity, propagandising, petitioning, public debating, maintaining contacts with their legislators and so forth.
• Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Federation of All India Foodgrain Dealers Association (FAIFDA) are Pressure Groups in Business Groups.
• All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) are Trade Unions.

• Rajiv Kumar is the second and the present Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog.
• He assumed office on 1st September 2017.
• He also serves as the Chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics in Pune.
• He is the director ofthe Pahle India Foundation, a non-profit research organization that specializes in policy-oriented research and analysis.
• The NITI Aayog is a policy think-tank of the Government of India, established with the aim to achieve sustainable development goals with cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of the State of Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.
• It was formed on 1st January 2015.

• Dr Suman K Berry is the current Vice-chairman of NITI Aayog.

• Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Government of India is related to India's Foreign Trade Policy.
• Directorate General of Foreign Trade is the chief body that administers laws related to foreign trade and foreign investment in India.

Know about the Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT).

• Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT) implements the EXIM (export-import) policy of the government.
• Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT) is an attached body of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• The DGFT was formed in 1991.

• New Industrial Policy previously was launched in 1991.
• The policies are to be framed by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

• The Swatantra Party, which existed from 1959 to 1974, was a typical Indian liberal political party.
• It was founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the increasingly communist and statistical outlook of the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress.
• The left turn was taken by the Congress at Avadi and the Nagpur Resolutions provoked the founding of the party. With the "Licence Raj" dismantled, Swatantra stood for a market-based economy, while it objected to laissez-faire policies.
• Rajagopalachari and his colleagues drafted a 21-point manifesto in 1960 outlining why Swatantra had to be established, even though they were previously Nehru's Congressmen and associates during the independence struggle.
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was extremely critical of Swatantra, describing the party as belonging to "the middle ages of lords, castles and zamindars".

• The Indian National Congress has widespread origins as a political party in India. Established in 1885, in Asia and Africa, it was the first new nationalist movement in the British Empire to emerge.
• The Republican Party, along with its primary, traditional rival, the Democratic Party, is one of the two main contemporary political parties in the United States. In 1854, opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act formed the GOP, which allowed the possible extension of chattel slavery into the western territories.
• The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was a political party of the Indian right-wing that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the political arm of the Hindu nationalist volunteer organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

• The Central Information Commission (CIC) is a statutory body, set-up under the Right to Information Act in 2005.
• The Commission includes one Chief Information Commissioner and not more than 10 information commissioners who are appointed by the President of India.
• The present CIC of India as of June 2020 is Shri Y K Sinha
• Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi is the present head of the Ministry of Personnel.

• Janta party announced the formation of a second backward class commission in 1978.
• Morarji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the Prime Minister of India from 1977 to 1979.
• He was also the first Prime Minister to head India's first non-Congress Government.
• He was the first PM to Demonetize India.
• The commission made to see the formation of second backward classes in 1978 was Mandal Commission.

• The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was established on August 3, 1954, under the direct charge of the Prime Minister.
• The Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Atomic Energy is the ex-officio Chairman of the 'Atomic Energy Commission.
• This department (DAE) has been engaged in the development of nuclear power technology, and applications of radiation technologies in the fields of agriculture, medicine, industry, and basic research.
• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is the nodal ministry of the Government of India.
• It (MNRE) is related to all matters related to new and renewable energy.
• The main objective of the Ministry is to develop and establish new and renewable energy to meet the energy needs of the country.

• The Indian Constitution has adopted a universal adult franchise as a basis of elections to the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
• Every citizen who is not less than 18 years of age has a right to vote without any discrimination of caste, race, religion, sex, literacy, wealth, and so on.
• The voting age was reduced to 18 years from 21 years in 1989 by the 61st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1988.
• Article 326 of the Constitution was amended, which concerns elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies.

Amendment of the constitution

• Article 368 in Part XX of the Constitution deals with the powers of Parliament to amend the Constitution and its procedure.
• It states that the Parliament may, in the exercise of its constituent power, amend by way of addition, variation or repeal any provision
  of the Constitution in accordance with the procedure laid down for the purpose.
• However, the Parliament cannot amend those provisions which form the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution.
• This was ruled by the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati case in 1973.

• Election Commission of India is vested with the power to recognize political parties and allot them election symbols.
• Election Commission allots symbols for anyone contesting in polls as per the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

• The 'Department of Space' is responsible for the Indian space program.
• It is an Indian government department, and the Prime Minister controls this department.
• The first Indian spacecraft ‘Aryabhata’ was launched on April 19, 1975.
• The space research activities were initiated in our country during the early 1960.
• The "Ministry of Home Affairs" is responsible for Internal security and peace in the country.
• The "Ministry of Information and Broadcasting" is responsible for the administration of Prasar Bharati, and the regulation of motion pictures.
• Shri S. Somanath is the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. (As of August 2022)

• The Economic Survey of India, the document that is brought out a day ahead of the General Budget, is the flagship annual report of the Finance Ministry.
• The survey is an assessment of the progress of the economy over the 12-month period.
• The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance presents the survey in the Parliament every year, just before the Union Budget.
• The survey is prepared under the guidance of the Chief Economic Adviser of India. The present Chief Economic Adviser of India is V Anantha Nageswaran.

• The history of the Bharatiya Janata Party starts with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
• Before the Bharatiya Janata Party, there was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh which was founded by Syama Prasad Mukherjee in 1951.

• Founded in 1980 by reviving the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the BJP wants to build a strong and modern India by drawing inspiration from India’s ancient culture and values.
• Came to power in 1998 as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance including several state and regional parties.

• Jayprakash Narayan:
  • He was associated with the concept of partyless democracy (devoid of any political party) under the influence of M.N.Roy.
  • He was a socialist leader and was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in the year 1999.
• Acharya Narendra Deva:
  • It was formed within the Indian National Congress in 1934 as a left-wing group with Acharya Narendra Deva as President and Jayprakash Narayan as a General secretary.
  • It was founded by a group of socialists such as Jaya Prakash Narayan, Achyut Patwardhan, N.G.Gore, Ashok Mehta, S.M.Joshi, M.L.Dantwala.
• Acharya Vinoba Bhave:
  • Vinobha Bhave was the first individual satyagrahi.
  • Bhoodan Movement was started in 1951 by Acharya Vinoba Bhave at Pochampally village (Telangana), India.
• J B Kripalani:
  • He was the President (1946 Meerut session of INC) at the time of independence i.e the last session of INC just before the before independence.

• The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a National level political party in India.
  • Founded on the birth anniversary of B. R. Ambedkar, 14 April 1984.
  • Founded by Kanshi Ram.
  • Kanshi Ram named Mayawati, as his successor in 2001.
  • BSP is the second-largest party in the 2019 Indian general election.
  • Election symbol is an elephant that is very similar to the election symbol of the Republican Party of the USA.