Political parties are the most important channels for political representation. They are organized groups comprising of persons who hold similar views on a variety of issues or have similar objectives. They seek to obtain political power, generally, through the process of elections. The views of a party taken together are called the party’s ideology. At election times, political parties issue ‘Manifestos’ i.e., what policies/programmes they would implement if voted to power. Every party puts up its candidates who contest election.
Interest and Pressure groups are informal channels that seek to represent the people. A pressure group is an interest group that is organized to influence public opinion and government policy towards the fulfillment of its objectives and without active participation in the electoral process. This includes interest groups in the fields of business such as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), for labour e.g., Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), for peasants such as Shetkari Sanghatana, for students such as Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), National Students Union of India (NSUI). In the USA, pressure groups are also called Lobby Groups.
Many pressure groups today are closely affiliated with political parties e.g., ABVP is the student wing of BJP and BKS is the Shiv Sena’s Trade Union. Both the pressure group and the political party will then support each other in times of elections and decision-making in aspects like finance, manpower, and publicity.
