Question

3. How does National parties enjoy more benefits compare to regional parties and independent candidates​

Answer 1

Explanation:

Independent candidates are often deemed ‘frivolous’ or ‘spoilers’ by mainstream political figures and authorities, although there is little to no evidence on their effect on elections. This article finds that independent candidates decrease the chances that a Lok Sabha constituency elects a member of the party or coalition that forms the national government. It suggests that participation by independents has a high price – a lesser role for the constituency in policymaking.

India has witnessed a massive proliferation of independent political candidates over the past 40 years. In the last election to the Lok Sabha1 in 2014, 3,234 independents contested the election across the country – an average of almost six per constituency. While independent participation has swelled, the electoral success of wethese candidates has remained piddling, as they collectively obtained less than 5% of the total votes per constituency in the last election. In the exceptional cases where they do win, they have little to no direct influence on policy, as they have no formal affiliation with the established political parties that typically wield power. Low vote shares and little direct policy influence drive the widely-held belief that independents are unimportant for political representation.

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