To what extent does the level of internal democracy within political parties impact the functioning and legitimacy of the Indian polity system? What reforms can address the challenges of inadequate intraparty democracy in India?

India follows a multi-party system where each party selects their candidate for particular constituencies.

Declining intraparty democracy can be seen in the following cases:

i) Winnability of candidate major factor behind selection of candidate

ii) Candidates with money and muscle power prefered.

iii) Candidates with criminal records allowed to compete election from the party.

iv) Old, loyal candidates of the party given tickets.

v) Lack of youth, women, SCs, STs in the candidate list.

vi) Representation to minority only on reserved seats mainly.

Intraparty democracy will help in:

selection of candidates that are better suited to elect & represent people.

Leads to more focus on work rather internal party politics.

Provides representation to all.

Reduction in money and muscle power.

Cleaner candidates will get more opportunities.

Educated leaders will be preferred.

Reduce the dynastic politic and nepotism in the political parties.

There will help in better functioning and legitimacy of internal party system.

However, there are some challenges to this:-

ii) Charisma of leader - face of the party as reducing flow on other members.

iii) Reserved seats for SCs, STs and women (in future) will reduce the intraparty democracy.

Reforms needed to address the challenges

Internal party democracy - elections, debates to be made mandatory in party manifesto by ECI

Internal party reservation for vulnerable section.

Equal distribution of seats among the members based on their status

Selection of party president based on consensus of members.

Strict rules on defection.

Internal party democracy will ensure focus of members on the duties of the citizens, rather internal politics. It will also help to support genuine and strong candidates

— Aditya Agarwal