Published Paper Details:

India is democratic country. India practices the federal democratic political system since independence. Federalism is a kind of political system in which constitutional powers of nations are distributed between union (Centre) and units (states). Centre and State are autonomous and have independence in their respective areas. In the Indian Constitution, powers are distributed through three lists. However, parties and their politics significantly push for the shifts in Federal structure also. Parties contest elections and formulate policies after assuming political power for the betterment of society. Indian National Congress was the single dominant party for two decades after independence. Gradually, regional political parties started evolving in the political system in India. The rise of regional parties resulted into coalition politics in India. However, the nature of party system again turned to one party dominant system when Bhartiya Janata Party came into power in the year of 2014. Therefore, given the different working style of the parties in government, federalism has undergone through various changes as per the shifts in the political parties in power. In the year of 2014, political leadership changed in India and the government of the day advocated for the cooperative and competitive federalism by projecting various changes to the system to enhance the cooperation and autonomy among states. Although the Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken various steps to transform Indian federalism, Steps taken could not abstain themselves from harsh criticism. This symbolizes the party politics impacting the change in the nature of federal politics also. The objective of this paper is to study and explore the impact of party politics on India's federal practices. This paper will identify the established federal practices before Modi era and subsequently the changes in federal politics in India. This paper will also focus on exploring the factors that pushing the government in bringing shifts in the federal principles.