Regional political parties in India/ edited by S. Bhatnagar and Pradeep Kumar

With the breakdown of the "dominant Party" system, the capacity of the Congress party to absorb or contain the various regional movements has decreased considerably. Even otherwise, the party discipline of a national party does not leave much scope for such an accommodation in a parliamentary set up. The regional interests, therefore, demand articulation through regional parties. In the recent past, some of these parties have successfully challenged the monopoly of the Congress by capturing political power
in their respective states. What is more important is that this is no longer viewed as merely a temporary annoyance with the
Congress. But infact these parties have created sufficient clientele of their own. The present collection confines itself to
only those regional parties which do not have all-India pretensions, and themselves claim only a regional status. The various
splinter groups and factions of some regional parties have been discussed, wherever necessary, in the main articles.
However, a separate paper has been included on the miniscule regional parties (or groups) of North-East India in view of their
influence in their area.