Includes Index

Over the past few decades, diverse social groups in India have been politicised and mobilised for electoral purposes on the basis of social cleavages, rather than on the basis of common economic interests, ideology or leadership. Almost all such social groups are spatially confined to a particular state or sub-region, following the reorganisation of states in India on a linguistic/ethnic basis,resulting in the rise of many state and sub-state parties. In effect, today India’s states are now important political units, and critical to the understanding of emergent ‘national’ politics.

How India Votes studies almost every state in India to develop a theoretical framework that will analyse and trace the processes of transition and reconfiguration in the electoral landscape. It answers the questions: What message do the states hold for parliamentary elections? How do the people, who belong to a state, respond to national and state leadership?

Drawing from the CSDS-Lokniti National Election Study 2014 data, the essays in the volume study demographic composition and the nature of socio-political cleavages and linkages; analyse the electoral outcomes of major state elections of the past decade and the influence of trends, alliances, seat adjustments, candidate selection and campaigns; study the impact of assembly and local elections held in the state, both in terms of electoral verdict and behaviour; and explore the developments that have taken place since the 2014 elections.

With its focus on the 2014 elections and state politics, this book will be useful for students of political science, psephology and sociology. It will also help the reader anticipate the issues that are likely to dominate the 2019 elections.