ABSTRACT

In the West, in most congressional or parliamentary political systems, there are two or three major political parties, and there may be additional special interest political parties with little or no real influence. In India, as of 12 March 2014, there were 1,616 registered political parties – 6 national parties, 47 state parties, and 1,563 socalled ‘unrecognized’ or regional parties.3 In Bihar, three national parties contested the latest elections and nine regional parties had candidates. Because there are so many parties and their names are often long, it is common practice to simply refer to them by their acronyms for the sake of brevity. Even the plethora of acronyms seems at times overwhelming.