Electoral Politics in India

Suhas Palshikar taught Political Science at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, and is the Co-Director of the Lokniti programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India.Sanjay Kumar is Professor and Director at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, India.Sanjay Lodha teaches in the Department of Political Science at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

• 1 Introduction PART I The Big Picture 2 The BJP’s 2014 resurgence 3 Understanding Congress’s debacle 4 The 2014 national election: mapping BJP’s victory through AAP’s prism 5 The last posts: the BJP in ‘non-BJP’ states PART II States that brought victory to BJP 6 Saffron sweep in Uttar Pradesh 7 The eastern gift: BJP’s 2014 victory in Bihar 8 The last election in undivided Andhra Pradesh: defeat to Congress and dividend for regional parties 9 Beyond the Congress System in Maharashtra PART III Predominance of state specificity 10 UDF bucked the anti-incumbency in Kerala 11 BJP’s limited challenge to Dravidian parties 12 BJD versus BJP: Odisha’s new bipolarity? 13 West Bengal politics at the crossroads PART IV New trends 14 The Modi factor in 2014 15 Place, politics and voting: Lok Sabha election 2014 16 Did young voters make a difference? 17 Media exposure and vote choice in 2014 18 Middle-class votes for BJP 19 Epilogue: critical shifts in 2014 election

"The collection’s essays, by leading political scientists, psephologists and sociologists, should interest all readers who seek an overview of national electoral trends in the run-up to the 2019 general election."The Caravan, A Journal of Politics & Culture