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  

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 Kumaris 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).