Regional political parties predominant in:
(a) Punjab: Shiromani Akali Dal
(b) Haryana: Indian National Lok Dal
(c) Uttarakhand: Uttarakhand Kranti Dal

Regional Political parties predominant in:
(a) Sikkim: Sikkim Democratic Front
(b) Nagaland: Nagaland People's Front
(c) Manipur: Manipur people's Party

The Communist Party of India was formed in 1925.
The following are the objectives of CPI.
(a) CPI believes in Marxism-Leninism, secularism and democracy.
(b) It opposes the forces of secessionism and communalism.
(c) It wants to promote the interest of the working class, farmers and the poor.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) opposes imperialism and communalism.
This party was formed in 1964.
The following are two main features of CPI-M.
(a) It supports socialism, secularism and democracy.
(b) It accepts democratic elections as a useful and helpful means for securing the objective of socio-economic justice in India.
(c) It is critical of the new economic policies allowing free flow of foreign capital and goods into the country.

(a) Group together a large number of similar opinions, thereby providing a direction in which policies can be formulated (b) Contest elections, providing the voters a choice between different policies
(c) Winning party forms and runs the government
(d) Losing parties form the opposition, and keep a check on the working of the government
(e) Playa decisive role in making laws, especially by debating them in the legislature.
(f) Shape public opinion by raising and highlighting issues
(g) Provide people a way to access government machinery and welfare schemes

It is believed that in most of the countries in the world, political parties are no longer popular. People have lost their trust in them and become indifferent towards them. According to a recent survey in South Asia, majority says that they do not at all trust the parties. A number of people belong to the "Not much" category. In India, there is growing indifference towards parties. They have failed to reduce poverty, prices and this led to indifference and unpopularity. In the rest of the world, which contains many democracies, political parties are one of the least trusted institutions. But there is another side of the story. Strangely enough, participation and membership of the parties has increased in great numbers. In India, it is higher than many advanced countries like Canada, Japan, Spain and South Korea. Party membership is higher in South Asia than the rest of the world. Though parties may have become unpopular, but at least in India, the participation is becoming lighter every year.

(a) In a democracy there are a large number of similar opinions regarding what to be done for the people. Government needs to evolve a policy out of these. This work is done by the parties.
(b) It reduces a vast number of opinions into a few basic ones which it supports. In this way government makes its policies based on the line taken by the ruling party.
(c) Political parties implement their policies and programmes by winning elections or gaining popularity in the elections.                                                                        

The various roles of the opposition parties in a democracy are listed as follows - 
(a) It acts like a watchdog of democracy. It keeps a check on the role of the Government (Ruling Party) and restircts them from misusing the power.
(b) It provides to the people alternative policies and keeps them aware of the failure of the Government in performing their duties or making wrong policies.
(c) The opposition is always a viable alternative to the ruling government.

(1) A party that secures at least 6% of total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a State and wins atleast two seats is recognized as a State party e.g, Akali Dal of Punjab, Sikkim Democratic Front, Biju Janata Dal, Telugu Desam of AP etc.
(2) A party that secures at least 6% total votes in Lok Sabha or Assembly elections in four States and wins at least 4 seats in the Lok Sabha is recognized as a National party e.g. Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) etc.
(3) The national parties take interest in National as well as State issues whereas Regional /State parties are interested in promoting regional or state interests only.

Political parties can be easily seen as one of the most visible institutions in democracies all over the world. The need of political parties lies in the facts - 
(1) It brings different representatives together so that a responsible government can be formed.
(2) They act as a mechanism to restrict the government from framing any unjust policies or laws.
(3) For most ordinary citizens, democracy means political parties. It happens because political parties fulfill the needs and aspirations of the people. So, political parties are in fact, a necessary condition in modern democracies.

No system is ideal for all countries and in all situations because party system is not something any country can choose. It evolves over a long time, depending on the nature of society, its social and regional divisions, its history of politics and its system of elections. Each country develops a party system that is conditioned by its special circumstances.

(a) A law should be established to regulate the internal affairs of parties, thereby making them more transparent.
(b) Women should be given at least one-third tickets.
(c) The state should fund election campaigns, thereby eliminating lobbying groups and unfair competition.

Various challenges faced by political parties are
(i) The parties are lacking internal democracy, which keeps many prospective leaders deprived of their rights.
(ii) There have been dynastic successions in many political parties. This often deprives the parties of appropriate leadership.
(iii) The parties sometimes involve in the use of money and muscle power for winning elections. This slow down development and is against the spirit of democracy.
(iv) Different political parties do not have significant ideological differences among them. So, there is a lack of meaningful choice before the voters.