Human beings have always organised themselves in groups and larger formation. Political parties have emerged as one of those human organisations. A political party is an organised group of persons who have common views on political and economic problems of the country and who try to capture the power by peaceful means. There are three types of party systems:

(i) Single Party System.

(ii) Bi-party system.

(iii) Multi party system.

Some of the essential features of a political party are :

(i) Public forming a political party have certain degree of agreement on fundamental principles and political matters or issues.

(ii) They seek to achieve their objectives and goals through peaceful and Constitutional means.

(iii) A political party aims at furthering national interests rather than communal, sectional or regional interests.

(iv) It seeks to capture and retain political power to enable it to promote the interests of the people.

(v) Political party which run the government are called the ruling party. In a coalition government, there may be more than one ruling party. Those who sit in the opposition and criticise and analyse the performance of the ruling party/parties generally or on specific issues are called opposition parties.

(vi) Political party must be an organised body of people with a formal membership.

(vii) It must have clearly spelt out policies and programmes.

(viii) Its members should agree with its ideology, policies and programmes.

(ix) It must aim at getting power through the democratic process.

(x) It must have a clear and acceptable leadership. and

(xi) It must focus on broad issues and major areas of government policies.