Electoral Dynamics in the States of India

Sandeep Shastri, Ashutosh Kumar, Yatindra Singh Sisodia

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000476972
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Campaigns & Elections
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This empirically rich volume presents a holistic picture of the electoral process in Indian states and the return of the BJP to power. Drawing on the 2019 elections, it presents ground-level data to understand various aspects of elections: the nature of campaigning, caste, class and identity politics, electoral issues, poll strategies of different parties in the fray, electoral issues, electoral verdicts, the contestants, the leadership factor, the formation of government, among other empirical details. The essays underline the determinants of electoral behaviour by looking into the correlation between the background variables of voters and their voting choices. The essays also compare and contrast the 2019 election verdicts from the earlier elections held in the state under study.
A long view of Indian state politics, this book will be essential reference for scholars and researchers of politics, especially political processes, and South Asian studies.

1 The 2019 Lok Sabha verdict at the state level

An Introduction

Sandeep Shastri, Ashutosh Kumar, and Yatindra Singh Sisodia

DOI: 10.4324/9781003159971-1

Introduction

The results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections could be termed as ensuring a consolidation of a phase of Indian politics that was ushered in by the verdict of the 2014 elections. At yet another level, the verdict was an endorsement of a ruling party and its leadership that led an alliance government for one full term. This election was also the success story of crafting a winning electoral alliance.

This present volume seeks to approach India’s electoral politics from the unique prism of the states of India. Choosing the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the site for a deeper analysis of the emerging trends and patterns in Indian politics, this study draws on the rich data emerging from the Lokniti – Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) National Election Study (NES). Aiming at a theoretically rigorous and empirically grounded analysis of India’s electoral politics, this book presents a state-by-state analysis of the emerging trends and patterns in this regard. This work continues the tradition established by the Lokniti network of bringing out a well-researched collection of articles on a national election with a specific political focus on trends across the states of the country.¹

The 2019 elections, in important ways, made more visible some of the trends that were put in place by the 2014 polls. In their analysis of the 2014 verdict, Palshikar, Kumar, and Lodha had argued that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared to be the ‘pivot around which alliances and counter-coalitions are emerging’ and the party looked to be on the cusp of becoming a ‘system defining party’ (2017:7). This election had the potential of having a ‘long term impact on the nature of competition and structure of competitive politics in the years to come’ (2017:13). In an accompanying volume largely based on an analysis drawn from the Lokniti-CSDS data, Kumar and Sisodia highlighted the ‘significance of political leadership in determining electoral choices’ (2018:21). In important ways, the 2019 election results only go to embed these trends more deeply in the dynamics of contemporary Indian politics.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1 The 2019 Lok Sabha verdict at the state level: An Introduction
• PART I Northern states
• PART II Central states
• PART III Western states
• PART IV Eastern states
• PART V Southern states
• PART VI North eastern states
• Index