Human beings have always organised themselves in groups and larger formations. Political parties have emerged as one of these human organisations. In modern age the ideal form of government is run through one or the other method of representative institutions. All representative governments and representative institutions require the existence of political parties. A political party is an organised body of people who share certain common principles and goals regarding the political system of a country. The main purpose of political parties is to acquire and retain political power. Political parties which run the government are called the ruling party. In a coalition government, there may be more than one ruling party. Those who sit in the opposition and criticize and analyse the performance of the ruling party/parties generally or on specific issues are called opposition parties.
A political party assuch should have the following essential features:
It must be an organised body of people with a formal membership;
It must have clearly spelt out policies and programmes;
Its members should agree with its ideology, policies and programmes;
It must aim at getting power through the democratic process;
It must have a clear and acceptable leadership ;and
It must focus on broad issues and major areas of government policies
