BLENDING DOMINANCE, REGIONALISM AND COALITIONS: A NEW READING OF INDIA’S FOURTH PARTY SYSTEM

Abstract

Since 2014, India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won more elections at the national and state levels than it has lost, returning with an even larger majority in the 2019 General Election. However, the question of whether there has been any break from the past in the nature of the Indian party system remains open. What is the nature of the BJP’s dominance in this period? What is the status of the opposition and the vitality of regional players in this new era? Have coalitions really been relegated to the past? This article investigates the current trends of the party system and compares them with tendencies exhibited historically. It applies mixed methods, largely quantitative analysis of secondary data based on ECI and Lokniti – CSDS election surveys. It argues that what has been called India’s “Fourth Party System” is not completely separate from the trends of the three preceding epochs but rather blends them in unique ways. A re-examination of the election results would reveal how dominance, regionalism and coalitions coexist in an enigmatic symbiosis offering a new reading of the structure of India’s current party system. The 2024 General Elections which witnessed a humbling but historic third consecutive BJP victory albeit reliant on coalition partners only reinforce how the three dimensions of dominance, regionalism and coalitions constantly play out in shaping the character of India’s Party System where changes seem more of a degree rather than of kind.