1st Edition
Electoral Dynamics in the States of India
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
PART I: Northern States
2. Explaining the Two Delhi Verdicts in Comparative Perspective: Party Identification, Leadership and Welfare
Biswajit Mohanty
3. The Congress Win in Punjab: An Outlier in the North
Ashutosh Kumar and Jagrup Singh Sekhon
4. Continuity and Change in Haryana Politics: Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections, 2019
Kushal Pal and Jyoti Mishra
5. BJP’s Clean Sweep with Record Margin left the Congress Clueless in Himachal
Ramesh K. Chauhan and Bharati Sharma
6. Bharatiya Janata Party Victory in Uttar Pradesh: A Shift from Caste Based Politics
Mirza Asmer Beg, Shashikant Pandey, and Sudhir Kumar
7. Electoral Politics in a Hill State: 2019 Elections in Uttarakhand
Pampa Mukherjee and Rakesh Singh Negi
PART II: Central States
8. Madhya Pradesh: Continued Ascendance of the Bharatiya Janata Party
Yatindra Singh Sisodia
9. Decoding the Sweeping BJP Victory in Rajasthan
Sanjay Lodha and Nidhi Jain
10. What Sealed BJP’s Victory in Chhattisgarh?
Vibha Attri and Lakhan Choudhary
PART III: Western States
11. Maharashtra: BJP replaces Congress
Rajeshwari Deshpande and Nitin Birmal
12. Gujarat: Caste, Religion and Political Leadearship
Mahashweta Jani and Bhanu Parmar
13. Goa: BJP’s Electoral Slide but Political Triumph
Alaknanada Shringare
PART IV: Eastern States
14. Bihar: A Comprehensive Victory for the NDA
Mohammad Sanjeer Alam and Rakesh Ranjan
15. ‘Jai Bangla’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’: Explaining the Emerging Political Dynamics in West Bengal
Jyotiprasad Chatterjee and Suprio Basu
16. Odisha Dual Verdict: Leadership, Welfare and Hindutva
Hilal Ahmed and Gyanaranjan Swain
17. Jharkhand: The Ascendance of the BJP as a Dominant Party
Harishwar Dayal
PART V: Southern States
18. Its Lone Southern Comfort – Lotus Blooms in Karnataka
Sandeep Shastri and Veena Devi
19. Andhra Pradesh: Dominant Caste Cleavages, Continuities and Reflections
E. Venkatesu
20. Kerala: Explaining the Dominance of UDF
K. M. Sajad Ibrahim
21. Verdict 2019: Reinforcing Dravidian Identity Politics in Tamil Nadu
P. Ramajayam
22. Springing a Surprise: Electoral Politics in the State of Telangana
Vageeshan Harathi, and Ramya Chitrapu
PART VI: North Eastern States
23. Voting Pattern in the North East: Special Focus on Nagaland, Meghalaya & Manipur
Amongla Jamir, R.K. Satapathy, Mangi Singh, and Shreyas Sardesai
24. Assam: Saffron Persists in an Ethnic Setting
Dhruba Pratim Sharma, Vikas Tripathi, and Dikshita Buragohain
Biography
Sandeep Shastri is the Vice Chancellor of Jagran Lakecity University, India, and the National Coordinator of the Lokniti Network. As a founder member of Lokniti, he has been actively involved in all its activities for the last quarter century. He has been a UNDP Consultant, a World Bank Adviser, and a Senior Adviser to the Forum of Federations.
Ashutosh Kumar is Professor at the Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. He has been associated with the Lokniti Network, CSDS, Delhi, India as state coordinator for Punjab. His research centers around state politics, with a focus on the issues related to elections, identities, and development.
Yatindra Singh Sisodia is Professor and Director at M.P. Institute of Social Science Research, Ujjain, India (an ICSSR institute), and State Coordinator (Madhya Pradesh), Lokniti Network. His areas of interest are democracy, decentralised governance, electoral politics, tribal issues, and developmental issues. He has been conferred with Professor G. Ram Reddy Social Scientist Award (2017).
"This is a careful, data-based analysis of the 2019 state level electoral results. The contributors provide thoughtful, granular and insightful analyses to explain the variation in electoral outcomes across the states that went to the polls. Any scholar or analyst interested in state-level politics in India will benefit from a careful perusal of this book."
- Šumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
"Looking beyond the saffron wave, this book analyses the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in a systematic manner at the state level. This approach allows the author to restore India’s political diversity by relying on the unmatched richness of the CSDS-Lokniti National Election Survey. Not only the singularity of the non-BJP states is explained, but the contrast between state politics and national politics in the strongholds of Moditva are deciphered too. A must-read!"
- Christophe Jafferlote, King's India Institute, London, UK
"Empirically rich and theoretically engaging, Electoral Dynamics in the States of India, is a must read for anyone interested in Indian elections and party politics. Each chapter offers a comprehensive and data rich analysis of the verdict in the 2019 national elections. The book is impressive in its geographic coverage. Electoral Dynamics in the States of India distills the complex and variegated nature Indian elections into a clear and readable analysis, which should appeal to all readers."
- Pradeep Chhibber, Professor and Indo-American Community Chair in India Studies, UC Berkeley, USA
"The period from 2014 to 2019 is a ‘critical juncture’ in Indian politics when BJP’s hegemony consolidated and expanded across India despite some setbacks. Despite this centralism and establishment of what appears to be another “one-party dominant system,” this volume of state-level analysis of the 2019 national election reveals fascinating regional patterns of voting behaviors, as well as how the state-level party systems are evolving. It shows the deeper sources of BJP’s consolidation and how the emergence of a hegemonic dominant party system is built brick-by-brick across states and where it faces some resistance. Such a deep yet comprehensive dive into each state’s electoral and political life is indispensable for understanding the national picture. This book will become a valuable source material for scholars interested in India’s electoral and party politics, state-level politics and consolidation of Hindu nationalism."
- Aseema Sinha, Wagener Professor of Comparative and South Asian Politics, and Roberts Fellow, Claremont Mckenna College, USA