Indian Parliamentary Elections Research Articles

Off limits: The role of news and social media in developing sexual assault and harassment as a campaign issue during the Indian parliamentary elections of 2019

In September 2018, the second wave of #Metooindia resumed in India, opening up conversations on sexual assault. Surprisingly, this did not lead to the inclusion of sexual assault as a key campaign issue in the Indian parliamentary elections in early 2019. This study investigates the underlying role of news media and social media in building an anti-sexual assault agenda in the 2019 Indian Lok Sabha election campaign. It builds on past literature on rational choice decision-making theory, social media activism and rape as a political issue in campaigns. This mixed method study includes the analysis of political manifestos and Facebook posts during the campaign, news articles published in the two most circulated English newspapers in India and interviews with political journalists. The restrained mainstream media coverage of sexual assault and pan-Indian social media platforms helped to limit the issue from becoming a part of the campaign during the elections.

The Apogee of India - Nepal relations under NDA First Modi Government

The last Indian parliamentary election held in 2014, proved to be the finest example of India’s age-old commitment towards the pinnacle of democratic norms. India had set a niche by conducting the largest democratic franchise in history. First time ever since the 1984, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) achieved the majority in the Lok Sabha without clubbing with coalition partners. It also got the absolute mandate to rule India’s federal government by ending the Congress monopoly. Interestingly, the Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in his campaigns criticized Congress-led United Progressive Alliance II (UPA II) for its impotency towards establishing friendly and cooperative relations with India’s neighbors. He also gave assurance that if his party (BJP) got the mandate, his leadership would adopt appropriate measures to resuscitate convivial ties with neighbors. Since forming the government, Prime Minister Modi has been persistently trying to pursue those promises by proceeding towards friendly ties with India’s neighbors. In the light of above discussion, this paper seeks to critically analyze the progress in Indo-Nepal relations under BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

#ModiWithAkshay: ‘Brand Modi’, social media and Bollywood star power

ABSTRACT On 24 April 2019, the New Delhi-based news agency, ANI, telecasted a ‘non-political’ interview of Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted by Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. Regarded as a PR coup, particularly in the context of the ongoing Indian parliamentary elections, the ‘freewheeling’ interview underlined Bollywood’s increasing proximity with the Modi-led BJP government. Employing a detailed analysis of the interview and the subsequent controversy, I examine the Bollywood star’s role in disseminating political rhetoric, underlining in the process both shifts in discourses of Hindi film stardom, as well as the increasing politicisation of the new media ecology. In doing so, I also highlight the long-standing relationship and presence of Hindi film stars in the political arena, a fact that has received scant scholarly attention. As social networking sites like Twitter are inundated with selfies of Bollywood stars with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hashtags like #CelebritieswithNamo and #ModiWithAkshay, it is imperative to analyse this emergent confluence of the political and the popular. Thus, using the Akshay Kumar–Narendra Modi interview as a case study, I examine not only the relationship between Hindi film stars and politics but also, the role of social media in shaping the current dynamics.

Processing of party symbols and names predicts the results of 2019 Indian parliamentary election: Analysing psycholinguistic behavioural incongruency effects

Abstract The response time and accuracy of processing verbal and nonverbal stimuli may predict the desired outcome of an event. Few studies have examined the psycholinguistic evidence of the speed-accuracy trade-off in the processing of political information to predict the outcome of an election. Therefore, we analysed the perceptual time and accuracy of two major political party names: the Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and their respective symbols before the Indian election 2019. Our results demonstrated that the pre-election perceptual accuracy to party symbol and name was positively linear to the index of high proportional vote share of the winning party, BJP. The high response accuracy and time for the BJP name correlated with voters’ familiarity of it, thereby establishing a link between response results and parties’ vote shares.

Institutional initiatives towards expanding democracy: the Election Commission of India and electoral mobilisation

ABSTRACT The Election Commission of India (henceforth, the EC), an institution created by the Constitution of India in 1950, manages and conducts parliamentary and state assembly (provincial level) elections. In recent elections, it has made tremendous efforts to make the electoral process more participatory. More than 900 million people were eligible to vote in the Indian parliamentary elections of 2019. In addition to the conventional ways of spreading voter awareness, the EC tried to reach out to voters through previously untried means to persuade them to come to the polling booths and vote – reflecting an institutional enthusiasm for popular mobilisation. However, there are also a significant number of missing names from the electoral rolls, and the EC faces accusations of being apathetic towards this anomaly. Is this eagerness on one hand and anomaly on the other symptomatic of ‘democracy at crossroads’, with India transiting to a more efficacious and involved institutional functioning, or is this an instance of strained institutional performance in the face of rising popular aspirations and tighter executive controls? The paper tries to explore this theme by looking at the functioning of the EC and its efforts towards voter participation in India.

Press Coverage of Electoral Politics: A Study of Indian Parliamentary Elections in two Mainstream Dailies

Press Coverage of Electoral Politics: A Study of Indian Parliamentary Elections in two Mainstream Dailies

The impacts of social media and news media on political marketing: An empirical study of 2014 Indian General Election

Elections witness the popularity and impact of social media worldwide. In 2014, Indian General Elections, Primetime News and Twitter were extensively used for the election campaign. Their comparative importance in party/candidate endorsement during the election is yet to examine. Present study analyses Primetime News and Twitter buzz effectiveness in vote gained. This study also attempted to measure the predictive power of Primetime News and Twitter buzz for the Indian Parliamentary election, 2014. For data analysis, regression analysis technique with root mean square error has been applied. Present studies suggest that there is a relationship but not significant between Twitter buzz and political party vote share. Whereas, Primetime News found a strong and significant relationship with vote gains and indicate high predictive power than Twitter.

Communicating with Voters on YouTube: Content Analysis of the Relationship Between Advertisement Message Characteristics and Viewers’ Responses

The present study is an endeavour to broaden the research on the use of social media websites in political campaigns beyond the ambit of developed countries. This article focuses on scrutinizing the role of YouTube during 2014 Indian Parliamentary elections—the first ‘social media’-based elections in India. The methodology of data collection incorporates the content analysis of 147 YouTube-based audio–visual political advertisements, associating the message characteristics (natures, types and appeals) with message reach (number of views) and viewer engagement (types of comments). The results reveal the failure of the viewers to recognize the association between message reach and viewers’ engagement with message characteristics, confirming the ‘marginal’ use of YouTube. However, the study recommends the incorporation of contemporary, Internet-based social media advertising tools along with the traditional tools in the future political marketing campaigns. This article is instrumental for political marketers and consultants in devising political marketing strategies.

The role of new media in political campaigns: A case study of social media campaigning for the 2019 general elections

Democracy is the best form of governance. We have tried other forms and concluded that, there may be some flaws but compared to the rest, democracy triumphs. Political process is part and parcel of democracy. Political parties compete with one another through ideology and vision for the people and the country. People evaluate the parties and their programmes and vote for the candidate they think will deliver good governance to them. Whenever their hopes are dashed, they wait to change the government through the ballot. In all of this, media plays a vital role. It not only informs but provides a forum for debate and discussion for the masses on important issues. Media has been credited with the power to influence enough people to bring about change in government. Today, new media or digital media has revolutionized the way we communicate. User-generated content in the form of text, photos, videos and podcast has put the power in the hands of ordinary people. Social media is a ubiquitous means of sharing content by many to many. Political parties are now using Facebook and Twitter to reach and influence voters. Voters on the other hand are not passive but use the social media to inform, comment and forward messages that has the potential to reach millions. The campaign for the April-May 2019 Indian Parliamentary elections will see an increase in the use of social media tools like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. Social media cells of major political parties are gearing up for social media war that will decide the fate of many urban seats in the General Elections. This study examines the social media campaign of the three major political parties in the Karnataka context. BJP has an edge due to the early start, but both Congress and JD(S) are catching up. BJP is on the back foot as it is the ruling party and Congress for a change has the advantage to win the perception battle.

Electoral Outcomes and Managerial Perceptions of the Business Environment

A stream of literature examines the link between electoral cycles and economic activity at the firm level, but we do not know much about managers’ policy expectations and beliefs after an electoral cycle. This study attempts to address this question by exploiting an electoral cycle within a cross-sectional survey. Using the Indian parliamentary election of 2014 as exogenous variation within the India Enterprise Survey (2014), we find that a decisive electoral outcome has an effect on managerial perceptions of the business environment, measured through measures of corruption and tax administration. While we find mixed evidence for the overall effect of the election on managerial perceptions, we find smaller firms appear to have higher expectations from a new government. Results also suggest that managers reflect the mood of their region’s voting choices.

A Content Analysis of YouTube Political Advertisements: Evidence from Indian Parliamentary Elections

YouTube, a popular video-sharing platform, is being used by political parties to influence voter behavior. The present exploratory study analyses the use of YouTube as a promotional tool during the Indian Parliamentary Elections 2014—the first social media based elections in India. This study examines 92 advertisements of Indian National Congress (INC) and 55 advertisements of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on YouTube for the following parameters: general characteristics of each video, types of message appeal used and the dominant content of the advertisements. The findings revealed that INC emphasized more on the identity of their party while BJP stressed on their candidate. Furthermore, the YouTube advertisements were dominated by positive campaigning. The parties appealed to the voters through logic and strongly addressed various national and developmental issues. Both the parties strategically expressed the optimistic future of the country under the dynamic leadership of their respective prime ministerial candidates. The findings of the study have important implications for political parties, political marketers and lawmakers as social media has occupied a significant place among young and educated voters and acts as a stimulant to voter engagement. The article adds value to the existing studies of political advertising and communication literature by theoretically adhering to Kaid and Johnston’s (2001) concept of ‘videostyle’, integrating the functional theory of political discourse, and appending the visual culture concept to political domain.

The Trump Campaign Computational Propaganda Challenge for the Indian Parliamentary Elections 2019

Digital technology tools like any computerized system have a viral tendency and what awaits the Indian Elections in 2019 is a Trump style sophisticated digital computational propaganda. Such tools are emerging as threats to democracies, especially like India, with a free media and a booming population, connecting to the web through smart hand-held devices, increasingly relying on social media for its news sources. The Indian landscape for digital privacy is also fertile with vast amounts of data being pilfered, hacked and legally accumulated. If carefully designed election propaganda based on fake news and bots is launched on the eve of the 2019 elections who will protect the pillars of Indian democracy? This qualitative study paper with a triangulation of two methods examines the role of computational propaganda in elections and undertakes to find the likelihood of its replication during the Indian general elections in 2019.

Impact of Interim Dividend Announcements on Banking Stock Prices in India

This study examined the stock market reaction to interim dividend announcements by Indian public sector banks in the year 2014. The year 2014 was the Indian parliamentary election year; there were a lot of expectations about dividends by the investing community. Not disappointing the investors, 22 of the 28 public sector banks declared interim dividends. This study analyzed the semi-strong efficiency of the Indian stock market with respect to interim dividend announcements by the banking companies in the year 2014. The methodology used for the study was market model event study. The results indicated that there were significant positive abnormal returns in some banking stocks prior to such announcements, signifying the investors were expecting such news and ,therefore, there was upward movement of stock prices. On the actual day of interim dividend announcement, 10 banks reacted positively on the announcement day, and 12 banks reacted negatively to the news.

Who wins in the Indian parliament election: Criminals, wealthy and incumbents?

The study examines the impact of criminal charges, wealth, incumbency status of the candidates and the party on their chances of winning and vote share in the Indian parliamentary elections 2009 using candidate level information on 8070 contestants from 543 constituencies. The descriptive and econometric analyses of the data reveal that there is a strong association between wealth, criminal charges and incumbency status of the candidates and the electoral outcomes. Wealthy incumbent candidates had higher chances of winning the election and these candidates also seem to be facing criminal charges. The incumbent candidates belonging to the state ruling party had higher chances of winning and increasing their vote share. Though criminal charges depress the chance of winning and vote share, the incumbency effects, particularly the party incumbency, has a bigger effect than criminality and wealth status.

Votes, Parties and Seats : A Quantitative Analysis of Indian Parliamentary Elections, 1962–2014 by Vani Kant Borooah

Votes, Parties and Seats : A Quantitative Analysis of Indian Parliamentary Elections, 1962–2014 by Vani Kant Borooah

Web sites for e‐electioneering in Maharashtra and Gujarat, India

PurposeThe purpose of this exploratory study is to look at how the Internet was used by political parties and candidates during the Indian parliamentary elections of 2009.Design/methodology/approachA total of 31 web sites belonging to political parties and their candidates in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were examined for how they were used to mobilize volunteers and voters. An online questionnaire and in‐depth interviews were administered to the web site coordinators/designers and politicians.FindingsThe study found that sites were not used to their maximum potential but instead, merely for publicity, online presence, and to explore the new medium. There was greater reliance by most candidates on traditional media such as rallies and face‐to‐face interaction. The reason may be due to the limited Internet penetration in India, which also means the Internet may have less influence on voters. Some candidates have shown the way to the potential use of the medium for fund raising and recruiting volunteers. But Indian politicians will likely continue to be cautious in using the Internet.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was limited to the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and did not consider the impact or the effectiveness of the Internet.Originality/valueThis is the first such study of the use of web sites for electioneering in India. It also documents the development in the use of the new medium for campaigning in 2009 as compared with the elections of 2004.

Looking for voting paradoxes in Indian elections

We try to find out a methodology for identifying Borda Paradox and Condorcet Paradox in the absence of information on preference profile of citizens, and try to apply the same to find out existence of such paradoxes in the 2004 Indian Parliamentary elections.

Shock win in India

The Congress party's strong performance in this year's Indian parliamentary elections defied all forecasts. However, hopes that the Congress-led government will rapidly push through economic reforms could be disappointed. Congress must address the needs of the many rural poor who voted for it and some of its coalition partners may oppose major liberalisation.

Duverger's Law and the Size of the Indian Party System

Duverger's law postulates that single-member plurality electoral systems lead to two-party systems. Existing scholarship regards India as an exception to this law at national level, but not at district level. This study tests the latter hypothesis through analysis of a comprehensive dataset covering Indian parliamentary elections in the period 1952—2004. The results show that a large number of Indian districts do not conform to the Duvergerian norm of two-party competition, and that there is no consistent movement towards the Duvergerian equilibrium. Furthermore, inter-region and inter-state variations in the size of district-level party systems make it difficult to generalize about the application of Duverger's law to the Indian case. The study concludes that a narrow focus on electoral rules is inadequate, and that a more comprehensive set of explanatory variables is needed to explain the size of the Indian party system even at the district level.

KONDO Norio, Indian Parliamentary Elections after Independence: Social Changes and Electoral Participation

KONDO Norio, Indian Parliamentary Elections after Independence: Social Changes and Electoral Participation