Chapter Political Parties Class 10 Competency based MCQs and assertion-based questions to prepare for Board exams. Attempt yourself and then check answers given in the last.
MCQs and Assertion Based Questions
1. Which practice of elected MLAs and MPs has been prohibited by a Constitutional Amendment?
- A) Defection
- B) Coalition
- C) Partisanship
- D)Alliance
2. After the polls close in any election, the EVMs are sealed and taken to a safe location. Which of the four political party difficulties is addressed by this part of the procedure
- A) Fighting among political parties to take possession of the EVMs
- B) Damaging EVMs in order to pressurise the Election Commission
- C) Rigging the results with money and muscle power
- D) Influential families gathering popular support to carry out vote-counting in public
3. What should be avoided to make political parties more democratic and to reduce the influence of a few candidates over others? (Choose more than one option)
- A) Declaration from members about their property, education and criminal records
- B) Registration of influential party members
- C) Internal elections
- D) Funding by candidates
4. What is the reason for the presence of so many regional political parties in India?
- A) Regional identity
- B) Federal progression
- C) Structural decentralisation
- D) Constitutional need
5. If political parties are affiliated with a certain ethnicity, caste, purpose or ideology, what does this express about the polity?
- A) Social and political division
- B) Demographic composition
- C) Political aspirations of the group
- D) Multi-party system
6. Which of the three elements make up a political party?
- A) Commissioners
- B) Investors
- C) Active members
- D) Followers
- E) Leader
7. Why does a multi-party system make more sense in India?
- A) Because of history
- B) Because of geographical expanse
- C) Because of social diversity
- D) Because of international relations
8. Which other political party challenge is related to the challenge of dynastic succession?
- A) Role of money and muscle power
- B) Partisanship
- C) No meaningful choice
- D) Lack of internal democracy
9. Which three of the following activities contribute to the problem of lack of internal democracy in political parties?
- A) Internal elections are not held regularly.
- B) Money and power is used for influence.
- C) Organisational meetings are not held.
- D) Real choices are not given for internal elections.
- E) Membership records are not kept.
10. To be recognised as a national political party, which three of the following conditions must a political party meet?
- A) Receive at least 6% of the total votes cast in a legislative assembly election
- B) Receive at least 6% of the vote in a Lok Sabha election
- C) Receive at least 6% of the total vote in four states’ assembly elections
- D) Win at least two seats in a legislative assembly election
- E) Win at least four Lok Sabha seats
11. What is the challenge that political parties confront when power is concentrated in the hands of only one or a few leaders?
- A) Use of money and muscle power
- B) Lack of internal democracy
- C) Dynastic succession
- D) Lack of meaningful choice to voters
12. Which of the following political systems in the world has two types of political parties?
- A) Aristocracy
- B) Federal
- C) Monarchy
- D) Two-party system
13. Bhartiya Janta party, Indian National Congress and the Communist Party of India- Marxist are which kind of parties?
- A) State
- B) Regional
- C) National
- D) International
14. Which one of the following has the most power?
- A) Ruling party with a majority
- B) Opposition party
- C) Independent MPs
- D) Coalition government
15. Which one of the following is the most visible institution in a democracy?
- A) Political committee
- B) Pressure groups
- C) Political parties
- D) NGOs
16. Which of the following country has a one-party system?
- A) UK
- B) USA
- C) China
- D) India
17. Who among the following organised the dalits into the Depressed Classes Association in 1930? [CBSE 2012]
- A) Kansi Ram
- B) B. R. Ambedkar
- C) Gandhiji
- D) Alluri Sitaram Raju
18. If a regional political party wants to be a part of the national government, which feature of the Indian political structure can help it achieve its aim?
- A) President’s rule
- B) Political merger
- C) Constitutional amendment
- D) Coalition
19. In order to be recognised, which of the following constitutional bodies must every political party in India register with?
- A) Comptroller and Auditor General
- B) Parliament
- C) Election Commission
- D) Enforcement Directorate
20. To be recognised as a state political party, which of the following two conditions must a political party meet?
- A) Receive at least 6% of the total vote in four states’ assembly election
- B) Receive at least 6% of the total votes cast in a legislative assembly election
- C) Receive at least 6% of the vote in a Lok Sabha election
- D) Win at least two seats in a legislative assembly election
- E) Win at least four Lok Sabha seats
21. What are the three best ways for ordinary people to exert pressure on political parties?
- A) Writing petitions
- B) Launching an armed rebellion
- C) Boycotting the laws
- D) Arranging protests
- E) Making use of media platforms
22. What measure can be adopted to make political parties more democratic and to reduce the influence of a few candidates over others?
- A) Funding by candidates
- B) Internal elections
- C) Declaration from members about their property, education and criminal records
- D) Registration of influential party members
23. Which Supreme Court order was issued to limit the power of money and criminals?
- A) Restricting entry of wealthy people
- B) Prohibiting the use of monetary and materialistic compensations
- C) Banning contestants with criminal allegations
- D) Filing an affidavit with property and criminal details
24. Read the extract and answer the questions given below:
“The difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in Britain is very little. They agree on more fundamental aspects but differ only in details on how policies are to be framed and implemented. In our country too, the differences among all the major parties on the economic policies have reduced. Those who want really different policies have no option available to them. Sometimes people cannot even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of leaders keep shifting from one party to another.” (NCERT, Political Parties, Pg. No. 84)
i. What is the central idea of the above extract?
- A) Lack of internal democracy
- B) No meaningful choice to voters
- C) Role of money and muscle power
- D) Dynastic succession
ii. Why is a decline in the ideological differences among parties not considered good for the democratic system?
- A) Political parties would not practise open and transparent procedures.
- B) This can make parties focus only on winning elections.
- C) Leaders would assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party.
- D) Voters who want different policies have no options.
25. What suggestion has been made to prevent money from being misused to influence elections?
- A) State-funded elections
- B) Educational parameters
- C) Committee to control expenses
- D) Internal elections
26. How can a political party’s decision-making process be made more gender-sensitive?
- A) VETO power for women over certain decision-making processes
- B) Women to make decisions related to women
- C) Only women in decision-making body
- D) Reserved seats for women on decision-making bodies
27. What can be done to improve gender balance in elections?
- A) Giving candidature to women instead of reserved constituencies of SCs and STs
- B) Giving candidature to at least one-third of the seats to women in elections
- C) Allowing only women voters to take part in polling
- D) Giving candidature to only women in all constituencies of the country
28. Assertion based questions
Directions: In the following questions, A statement of Assertion (A) is followed by a statement of Reason (R). Mark the correct choice as:
(A) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(B) Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A.
(C) A is true but R is false.
(D) A is false and R is true
i. Assertion (A): Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country.
Reason (R): Opposition parties also oppose the government in Assemblies.
ii. Assertion (A): India is a country with a multi-party system set up.
Reason (R): The multi-party system often appears very messy and leads to political instability.
iii. Assertion (A): Political parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy.
Reason (R): For most ordinary citizens, democracy is equal to political parties.
iv. Assertion (A): Most people tend to be very critical of political parties.
Reason (R): They tend to blame parties for all that is wrong without democracy and our political life.
v. Assertion (A): Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them.
Reason (R): Each of us has similar opinions and views on what policies are suitable for society
vi. Assertion (A): Council Members form and run governments.
Reason (R): Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.
vii. Assertion (A): The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative
democracies.
Reason (R): As societies became large and organised, they do not need any agency to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government.
viii. Assertion (A): In some countries, power usually changes between two main parties.
Reason (R): In India there were three such major alliances in 2004 parliamentary elections– the National Democratic Alliance, the United Progressive Alliance and the Left Front.
ix. Assertion (A): Every party in the country has to register with the Election Commission.
Reason (R): While the Commission treats all parties equally, it offers some special facilities to large and established parties.
x. Assertion (A): Over the last three decades, the number and strength of these parties has expanded.
Reason (R): This made the Parliament of India politically less and less diverse.
xi. Assertion (A): Since 1994, nearly every one of the State parties has got an opportunity to be a part of one or the other national level coalition government.
Reason (R): This has contributed to the strengthening of federalism and democracy in our country.
xii. Assertion (A): The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties.
Reason (R): Very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters.
Answers
1. A) Defection
2. C) Rigging the results with money and muscle power
3. B) & D) Registration of influential party members; Funding by candidates
4. a) Regional identity
5. a) Social and political division
Political parties are the most visible and accessible institution in a democracy. When they are associated with a particular race, caste, purpose, or ideology, they reveal society’s social and political divisions.
6. C), D), E)
Active members
The active members provide the workforce and strength to a political party in electoral politics.
Followers
The political party’s followers strengthen their space both in the social sphere and in electoral politics.
Leader
The leader of a political party determines the ideology and course of the political party.
7. C) Because of social diversity
8. D) Lack of internal democracy
Because dynastic succession undermines internal democracy, it is linked to the challenge of lack of internal democracy.
9. D) Internal elections are not held regularly
10. B), C), E)
Receive at least 6% of the vote in a Lok Sabha election
Receive at least 6% of the total vote in four states’ assembly elections
Win at least four Lok Sabha seats
11. B) Lack of internal democracy
The challenge that political parties confront is the lack of internal democracy within parties and a tendency to concentration of power in one or a few leaders at the top.
12. B) Federal
All over the world, political systems with the federal structure have two kinds of political parties — central and regional.
13. C) National
14. A) Ruling party with a majority
A party that wins a majority in elections does not depend on other parties to form and run the government. It has more power than coalitions, opposition parties and independent MPs.
15. A) Political parties
16. C) China
China has a one-party system, and only the Communist Party is allowed to govern.
17. B) B. R. Ambedkar
He arranged Dalits into an association in 1932. It gave the Depressed Classes (later to be known as the Schedule Castes) reserved seats in provincial and central legislative councils, but they were to be voted in by the general electorate.
18. D) Coalition
In a coalition government, a few regional parties can come together and contest election at the national level, or regional parties can form an alliance with a national-level political party.
19. C) Election Commission
20. B), D)
Win at least two seats in a legislative assembly election
Receive at least 6% of the total votes cast in a legislative assembly election
21. A), D), E)
Making use of media platforms
Ordinary people can pressurise political parties by making use of media platforms and questioning officials, demanding answers and transparency.
Arranging protests
Ordinary people may pressurise political parties by staging protests to demand something or express their dissatisfaction with policies or decisions.
Writing petitions
Ordinary people can put pressure on political parties by writing petitions about issues they are concerned about.
22. B) Internal elections
23. D) Filing an affidavit with property and criminal details
24. i. B) No meaningful choice to voters; ii. D) Voters who want different policies have no options.
25. A) State-funded elections
To avoid money from being used to influence elections, it has been proposed that elections be financed by the state, which would allow for more control over spending.
26. D) Reserved seats for women on decision-making bodies
27. D) Giving candidature to at least one-third of the seats to women in elections
28.
i. B
ii. B
iii. A
iv. A
v. C
vi. D
vii. D
viii. B
xi. A
x. C
xi. A
xii. B
