Parties in India

1. Indian National Congress is “grand old party” of India led by Sonia Gandhi. Last government was headed by it along with support of several allies. It is going in present election with Nationalist congress party, Trinmool Congress, DMK, National conference etc Any more introduction needed?

2. Bhartiya Janta Party: It was second biggest party in 14th Lok sabha. It is led By Lal Krishna Advani, also the prime ministerial candidate of NDA, an alliance led by BJP including JD(U), Shivsena, Akali Dal, Indian National Lok Dal, RLD and AGP. It is political wing of RSS a Hindu Nationalist organization. Its legacy can be traced back to Bhartiya Jan Sagh in pre 1977 period.

3. Communist party Of India(Marxist): After Success of Bolshevik revolution in Russia, in every nation communist parties were formed. Communist party of India was formed at that time. In 1964 a radical section got seprated from old party and named itself CPI(M). Inspite of some later divisions It remains biggest communist party in india, is led by prakash karat,and is quite strong in Kerla, West Bengal and Tripura. It is biggest party in Third front.

4. Samajwadi Party is a political party with main base in Uttar Pradesh. It describes itself as a democratic socialist party. It was founded on October 4, 1992. The Samajwadi Party was one of several parties that emerged when the Janata Dal (People's League), fragmented into several regional parties. Its main leaders include Mulayam Singh Yadav, Amar Singh etc.

5. Rashtriya Janata Dal was founded in 1997 by Laloo Prasad Yadav. The party came about as a result of Lalu Prasad Yadav, ex-president of Janata Dal, being evicted by Sharad Yadav, the then president, on corruption charges over the farm support funds. In 2008, RJD received the status of recognized national level party following its performance in north-eastern states but its main strength is in Bihar. RJD and LJP are contesting the election together in Bihar.

6. Bahujan Samaj Party is led by Mayawati and is ruling party in Uttar Pradesh. It was formed to chiefly represent Bahujans (OBC, SC, ST & Minorities), who are thought by some to be at the bottom of the Indian caste system, and claims to be inspired by the philosophy of Ambedkar. The BSP was founded by the high-profile charismatic leader Kanshi Ram in 1984. On 11 May 2007 the Uttar Pradesh state assembly election results made BSP the first single majority party since 1991. After 15 years of hung assembly, BSP won a clear majority in India's most populated state.

7. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (literally "Dravidian Progress Federation" [1]) is a regional political party with presence mainly in Tamilnadu. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar. The party is headed by M Karunanidhi since 1969, the incumbent Chief Minister of the state. From Justice party Periyar carved out the "Dravida Kazhagham" However, over the years, disputes arose between Periyar and his followers. In 1949, several of his followers led by C. N. Annadurai, decided to split from Dravida Kazhagham and form DMK. It split over the past three decades into the AIADMK in the 1970s and the MDMK in the 1990s.

8. Shiv Sena is a far right wing political party in India founded on June 19, 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray who resigned from the active leadership and gave the position to his son Uddhav. The party originally emerged out of a movement in Mumbai, the then-Bombay, broadly favouring increased influence of Marathis in Maharashtra. Gradually the party moved from solely advocating a pro-Marathi ideology, to one supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda. Shiv Sena-BJP would contest together in Maharastra election.

9. Biju Janata Dal is a regional party of the Indian state of Orissa led by Naveen Patnaik, son of former state chief minister Biju Patnaik. Naveen took over his father's Lok Sabha seat in 1996 as a member of the Janata Dal. In 1997, Naveen split from Janata Dal over its failure to ally with the BJP, and formed the BJD in December 1997. The BJD has participated in several ruling coalitions with the Bharatiya Janata Party both at the Centre and in Orissa. But now it has broken its alliance and decided to go alone in Lok Sabha as well as State assembly elections.

10. Communist Party of India: It is old communist party formed in tweties by MN Roy, Dange etc. In 1964, the division in it on question of USSR-China relationship,cooperation with congress etc led to birth of communist party of india(Marxist). Currently a part of left front led by CPI(M) which iclude other groups like forward block, Revolutionary Socialist Party etc. A member of Third front in this election.

11. Sharad Pawar, Purno Aitok Sangma and Tariq Anwar split from the Congress because They felt no foreign-born person should rule India and formed Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) on May 12, 1999, the day the Kargil war began. The NCP's primary aim was to see that no person of foreign origin should occupy the prime minister's office. It also stated that the country needed to be united and must maintain its secular and democratic traditions. It also emphasised on federalism. The NCP split after Sangma and Pawar differed over the issue of forming an alliance with congress in the 2004 general election when Pawar was for alliance. Congress-NCP would contest together in maharastra.

12. Akali Dal, also called Shiromani Akali Dal (Supreme Akali Party), is a collection of Sikh political parties mainly based in Punjab founded/headed by different people. Akali Dal was formed on 13 December 1920. Akali Dal's history is full of divisions and factionalism. Each faction claims to be the real Akali Dal. In 2003, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), headed by Parkash Singh Badal, was the largest faction and the one recognized as having the name SAD (Badal) by the Election Commission of India. At the February 2007 Punjab state elections, the Shiromani Akali Dal led by Parkash Singh Badal won 48 of the 117 seats and heads government in coalition with BJP with Parkash Singh Badal as chief minister. It would contest Lok Sabha Election 2009 in coalition with BJP.

13. Janata Dal (United) is a political party in India with political presence mainly in Bihar and Karnataka. It is led by Nitish Kumar. The current party was formed by the merger of the erstwhile Janata Dal (United) with the Samata Party on October 30, 2003. The uniting force is believed to be common opposition to Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar. The Samata Party was formed as an offshoot of the Janata Dal in 1994 by Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes. The reason given was that the Janata Dal had shifted to casteism. The party has socialist leanings . It would contest election in alliance with BJP.

14. Pattali Makkal Katchi is a Tamil political party. PMK participated in the National Democratic Alliance until December 2003, and was part of the Indian central government from 1999-2003. In 2004, PMK joined the United Progressive Alliance. The PMK founder is Dr. S. Ramdoss and the president is G.K. Mani. Ramdoss had earlier worked with the Vanniyar Sangham (Vanniyar Union) founded by him in 1980. PMK is based amongst the Vanniar caste, an OBC community. PMK has advocated the bifurcation of the state of Tamil Nadu, a proposal that was seen as a casteist line. PMK was mainly based in the northern half of the state.

15. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is a regional political party in Andhra Pradesh. Its main aim is the formation of a Telangana state. K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) was a member of the Telugu Desam Party until he quit the party and formed the TRS in 2001. In the 2004 assembly elections, the TRS formed an alliance with Congress (I) and won 26 state assembly seats. The party also won 5 parliament seats at the national level. It joined the governments at both state and central level. In September 2006 the party withdrew support for the central government on the grounds of indecision by the government over the delivery of its electoral promise to create Telangana and now is with Left led third front.

16. Jharkhand Mukti Morch: It is based in Jharkand and in undevided bihar, its main aim was to struggle for a seprate Jharkhand sate. Shibu Soren is its leader.

18. Telugu Desam Party or TDP is a regional political party in Andhra Pradesh state. It was founded by former Telugu film star N.T. Rama Rao . In the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), it was the fourth largest party with 29 members but got reduced to 5 seats in 2004 lok sabha elections.
The party was voted into power in a record nine months after its establishment on March 29, 1982 because of charisma of NTR. In 1995, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, finance minister and the third son-in-law of NTR overthrew Rama Rao's government by gathering a majority of the MLAs in September 1995. On October 9, 2008, TDP announced a major shift in its policy towards Telangana. The politburo of TDP, after long rounds of discussion, decided that it would favour a separate state for Telangana and this time it is contesting with TRS.

19. Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam a political party from tamilnadu formed in 1994 by Mr. V. Gopalswamy (also known as Vaiko), a member of Rajyasabha and a party activitist of DMK. The MDMK split on 9 July, 2008 with the looming possibility of a vote of confidence in Parliament against the UPA. This time it is contesting election in coalition with AIDMK in tamilandu.

20. Lok Jan Shakti Party is led by Ram Vilas Paswan. The party was formed in 2000 when Paswan split from Janata Dal (United). The party has considerable following amongst Dalits in Bihar. The 2004 Lok Sabha elections marked a major break-through for the party. It contested the polls in alliance with the Indian National Congress and the RJD and won 4 Lok Sabha seats. This time it is contesting in Bihar in alliance with RJD.

21. Rashtriya Lok Dal: It is a party based mainly in Jat belt of western Uttar Pradesh. It is led by Ajit Singh son of former prime minister Charan Singh. It is contesting election in alliance with BJP.

22. Forward Block: Neta Ji Subhash Chandra Bose formed it after quitting congress in 1939. It was a party for a nationalistic kind of socialism. Currently a part of Left front, would contest election as a member of recently formed Third front.

23. Revolutionary Socialist Party:

24. Janata Dal (Secular) is a left of centre Indian political party led by former Prime Minister of India H.D. Deve Gowda. It was formed in July 1999 by the split of Janata Dal party. It has political presence mainly in Karnataka. Janata Dal split in 1999 when some leaders left to ally with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and form the Janata Dal (United) party. JD(S) is a part of Left led Third front.

25. All India Trinamool Congress, is a political party mainly based in west bengal led by Mamata Banerjee. Founded in 1997, it consisted largely of defectors from the Indian National Congress in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee was expelled from Indian National Congress on 22 December, 1997 and she formed her own party and christened it as “Trinamool Congress”. It is a pre poll partner of congress in West Bengal in this Lok Sabha Election.

26. The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference is a political party in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Led at the time of Indian Independence in 1947 by Sheikh Abdullah, it dominated electoral politics in the state for many decades. Grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, Omar Abdullah heads a minority government with support of congress in state right now. Congress and NC would contest Election together.

27. Asom Gana Parishad is a political party in Assam, India. The AGP was formed after the historic Assam Accord of 1985 when Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was elected as the youngest chief minister of the country. AGP was a result of 6 years long Assam Agitation started in 1979 against Illegal Infiltration of Foreigners from Bangladesh into Assam, led by All Assam Students Union(AASU). The AGP has formed government twice from 1985 to 1989 and from 1996 to 2001. AGP will contest with BJP in this Lok Sabha election.
(Numbers are according to their position in 2004 LOK Sabha election).