Following are the factors responsible for the emergence of Regional Parties:
(a) Ethnic and Cultural factors: India is a country of enormous size and diversities—ethnic and linguistic. There are regions which are far away from the National Capital. People dominating some of the regions, blame the national parties for not knowing their problems. Consequently, their attachment to the regional parties is quite natural. They believe the regional parties like—Biju Janata Dal, Goa People’s Congress, Mizo National Front and Telugu Desam Party could voice their aspirations in a well to do manner.
(b) Fear concerning North’s domination: Some of the leaders of South India had been against the domination of North India. The DMK and All-India Anna DMK were the parties being fed on anti-North and anti-Hindi stance. But now, the two Southern parties are getting rid of their old prejudices.
(c) Center-State relations: By 1970s the Centre-State relations began to attenuate. A movement for real State autonomy arose in Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Northeastern regions.
The main demands of the regional parties are:
1. Regional imbalances should be done away with,
2. President’s rule should not be imposed in State to promote partisan interests, and
3. The States should have a better share in Central revenues.
(d) The organizational weakness of the Congress: When the Congress was strong in an organization, regional parties were practically nonexistent. As the Congress weakened, regional parties gained the upper hand in some of the States.
