Cooperative Party

Co-operative Party
Matrabashi name	सहकारी पार्टी
Abbreviation	CP
Presidium	Standing Committee
General Secretary	Ekanath Nayak1
Committee Members	Aditi Padhya Prem Dalavi Jeet Mukhtar Manhar Mulani
Founder	Anand Mahanti
Founded	February 15, 1949 (1949-02-15)
Preceded by	People's Party
Headquarters	Rashram House, Daksard Road, Kinadica
Newspaper	Ekajutavaj
Youth wing	Young Mazadoor
Women's wing	Womens Mazadoor
Membership (2020)	16,125,084
Ideology	Social democracy Democratic socialism Charsidhanism
Political position	Centre-left Left-wing
Religion	Secular
Alliance	National Progressive Alliance (NPA)
Colors	Red
Slogan	United in our Labour
Shahee Sansad seats	100 / 500
State Governments	8 / 26
State Legislature seats	1,328 / 4,000
Political parties 1 = Leader of HM's Opposition

The Co-operative Party (Often spelled as the Cooperative Party, abbr. CP) is a political party in Rajyaghar. The party has widespread roots across the country and is one of only three nation-wide, federally operating, political parties, along with the Rajyani Rashtriya Party (RRP) and Liberal Party (LP). Founded in 1949 as a result of a split of the People's Party, the party became the first socialist movement to emerge in Rajyaghar.

Despite being originally founded as a socialist party, the CP has evolved into a "big tent" party whose platform is generally considered in the centre-left to left of Rajyani politics. One of the key causes of this drift is the adoption of Charsidhanism - which supports constitutional monarchy - as a core value of the party. The Cooperative Party supports the values of equality, democracy and social welfare with a strong emphasis on government involvement in social affairs to push forward progress. The Cooperative Party is widely considered as a party for social equality - decriminalising homosexuality in 2002 -, big government and increased welfare spending. Unlike the RRP, which has a monopoly on the centre-right to right wing of rajyani politics, the CP competes with multiple other political parties for the centre-left to left vote, particularly in state elections. At the national level, the CP maintains strong support from labour unions which enables it to maintain a monopoly on the left at the federal level.

Since forming in 1949, the Cooperative Party has headed the Central Union Government for a total of 34 years. There have been five Cooperative Premiers, the first being Anand Mahanti (1951-1955), and the most recent Ravi Sharma (2000-2010). In 2010, the CP was voted out of office and entered the new Shahee Sansad as the Official Opposition, a position it has retained through the 2015 and 2020 general elections. As of February 2021, the party is in power in eight state legislatures.

The CP's base is traditionally made up of young and educated voters with large support from urban areaes. However, since the 2000s, the party has seen competition in courting the youth vote from the RRP and Liberals. The CP has typically done well in the more densely populated Union States and has made inroads with the eastern states of Zulmat and Parsa.

History

People's Party split

During Baiju Kapadia's premiership, the first in independent Rajyaghar, splits began to emerge within the People's Party between the centrist and left wing factions. During the first few years of the term, the government and party were held together due to the ongoing First Satrian War but with the it concluding in 1948, the rivalries between the two factions became more intense with constant power struggles occurring within government.

The centrist faction, led by Onkar Jariwala wanted to take strong action against the communist insurgents in the south whereas the left wing faction, led by Anand Mahanti, wanted to open a dialogue with the insurgents. The left wing faction also wanted to pursue public welfare programmes such as establishing a national health service with it being funded by cutting military spending. The Liberals, appalled by this stance, led a misinformation campaign against the incumbent Secretary of State for Health who was spearheading this plan. These underhand tactics, also employed by the left to attack the incumbent Secretary of State for Defence, led to crisis talks chaired by Kapadia, who himself was a centrist.

Kapadia was unable to reconcile the two factions with the leftists accusing him of inherent bias and the centrists accussing him of failing to secure the party. In 1949, at the fifth crisis talks in Thimpar, Nakhtrana, Kapadia determined that the party could no longer go on and ordered Jariwala and Mahanti to make preparations for a split. In order for the two new parties to be firmly established prior to the next election, both Jariwala and Mahanti both pledged to support Kapadia in the Shahee Sansad to allow the government to continue in office until the 1951 election.

Mahanti Government

At the 1951 election, Anand Mahanti and his newly formed Cooperative Party swept to power with a narrow majority in the 2nd Shahee Sansad. Mahanti, known to be a pragmatist, created a deal with the Irfanic Coalition for a confidence and supply arrangement so that the government would have enough breathing room to pass key legislation. Mahanti's government would be known for its continuation of key infrastructure projects initially started under the Kapadia Premiership. This, alongside a post-war boom helped to rapidly increase the size of the economy. Capitalising on this, the Mahanti government would create additional infrastructure programmes that would link the more rural states with the larger economic powerhouses of the core region. Mahanti's legacy would ultimately be the creation of the National Health Service in 1953. The public health care provider would be payed for by a significant reduction in military spending, owing also to the diplomatic policy conducted by the Mahanti Government towards Ajahadya, and an increase in taxes.

The mid 50s saw the rise of ethnic, religious and geographic divisions across the country. The southern states, traditionally a bastion for cooperative party support, had become disenfranchised with the centre-left politics of the Mahanti Government. In Sangam and Sasipur, the CP saw numerous defections to the newly created Communist Party. Demands for more autonomy by the southern and mountain states, who themselves were worried about increasing urbanisation and gentrification, would see increased division across the country. Another new political party created was the Tarkhana National Party which sought to declare independence for the Union State of Tarkhana. At the 1955 general election, the CP would lose its narrow majority and leave government. Mahanti's failure to combat the popular rise of the pro-tulyatan RRP would also see its political ally, the irfanic coalition, desert the CP and form a coalition government with the Liberals.

Emergency

[initial support for the emergency, later opposition]

[imprisonment of senior leadership, joining of anti-government protests and strikes]

Chakarvarti Government

[national unity government]

[Chakarvarti years - increased stability, democratisation, anti-corruption]

Mulani Years (1980s)

text

1990s

[bridging the gap between the old guard and younger generation of leaders under Gulati]

Sharma Government

[social liberalisation and increased involvement in international affairs outside of Satria]

Political wilderness

[remaining in the centre-left under Agarwala]

[drift to the left under Ekanath]

General Election Results

Year	Legislature	Party leader	Seats won	Change in seats	Outcome
1951	2nd Shahee Sansad	Anand Mahanti	254 / 500	229	Government
1955	3rd Shahee Sansad	Anand Mahanti	191 / 500	73	Opposition
1959	4th Shahee Sansad	XX	205 / 500	14	Opposition
1960	5th Shahee Sansad	XX	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
1965	6th Shahee Sansad	XX	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
1968	7th Shahee Sansad	Akshey Chakarvarti	278 / 500	XX	Government
1973	8th Shahee Sansad	Akshey Chakarvarti	286 / 500	8	Government
1978	9th Shahee Sansad	Balram Mulani	254 / 500	32	Government
1980	10th Shahee Sansad	Balram Mulani	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
1985	11th Shahee Sansad	Balram Mulani	89 / 500	XX	Government
1987	12th Shahee Sansad	Balram Mulani	89 / 500	XX	Government
1988	13th Shahee Sansad	Balram Mulani	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
1992	14th Shahee Sansad	Manas Gulati	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
1995	15th Shahee Sansad	Manas Gulati	89 / 500	XX	Government
2000	16th Shahee Sansad	Ravi Sharma	89 / 500	XX	Government
2005	17th Shahee Sansad	Ravi Sharma	89 / 500	XX	Government
2010	18th Shahee Sansad	Ravi Sharma	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
2015	19th Shahee Sansad	Aalok Agarwala	89 / 500	XX	Opposition
2020	20th Shahee Sansad	Ekanath Nayak	100 / 500	11	Opposition

Ideology and political positions

Social and Economic Policies

text

Communism Ban

[overview of the party's relationship with the communist ideology and resulting consequences as a result of the communism ban implemented during the emergency]

Foreign Policy

text

Defence Policy

text

Leadership

The Kendrasam is the leadership and policy making body of the Cooperative Party and it is made up of Congressmen/women from each of the Shahee Sansad constituencies. Each constituency has three congressmen/women which then determine amongst themselves a party member from that consitituency to run for that constituency's seat in the Shahee Sansad. The Kendrasam as a whole is tasked with selecting from amongst itself the General Secretary of the Cooperative Party. The General Secretary will then appoint several members of the Kendrasam to serve on the Standing Committee to assist in the leadership of the party, fill key party roles and help guide the policy making process within the Kendrasam.

Since the party's formation, the Standing Committee has always consisted of Cooperative Party MPs and they have always taken on the most senior of cabinet positions when in government. When the party is in opposition, the Standing Committee is often smaller in size.

The system was intended to have a 'bottom up' leadership system with local officials selecting the national leadership. In reality, the General Secretary and the Standing Committee will select the individuals from the party membership to serve as congressmen/women in the Kendrasam effectively making it a rubber stamp.

Current Standing Committee

Since 2017, the Standing Committee of the Cooperative Party consists of General Secretary Ekanath Nayak and four other members, thus making it the smallest Standing Committee in CP history.

Name	Party Position(s)	Government/Opposition Position(s)
Ekanath Nayak	General Secretary	Leader of the Opposition
Aditi Padhya	Party Secretary for the Union	Shadow Secretary of State for Home Affairs
Prem Dalavi	Party Secretary for the Sansad	Shadow Leader of the House
Jeet Mukhtar	Party Secretary for the Kendrasam	Opposition Chief Whip
Manhar Mulani	Party Secretary for Administration	Shadow Secretary of State for Justice