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Depoliticisation and Ideational Vision

The 2024 Lok Sabha Elections in India

by Bidyut Chakrabarty (Author)
©2025 Monographs 214 Pages

Summary

<Main blurb text, to appear in regular font> The book is an in-depth study of the eighteenth Lok Sabha elections held in India. Besides dwelling on the factors that acted critically in exercising voting rights by the voters, the text also highlights how the voters established their hegemony while casting votes in accordance with their priorities.
<Endorsement, to appear as quote> This book stands out not merely because it introduces new parameters of conceptualizing Indian politics, but also because it questions the widely accepted models of analysis. By innovatively deciphering the nature of voting behaviour, the book provides newer conceptual tools which will help future researchers to reconceptualise democracy in a different but theoretically persuasive model of analysis.
Professor Dennis Dalton, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University
<Endorsement, to appear as quote> Meticulously organised and incisively analysed, this study offers a pan-Indian level of an in-depth analysis of the 2024 Indian Lok Sabha polls. The book convincingly argued that to make a sense of disparate socio-cultural, politico-ideological, and diverse lingual-geographical fault-lines of the Indian society, one needs not to lost in fabricating a pan-Indian model of its electoral algorithm.Conceptualisingafresh, it weaves an episteme to map Indian electoral democratic space through a prism of constant influx.
- Professor (Dr.) Ronki Ram, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chair Professor of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Halftitle Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Tables
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Part A – The National Scene
  • Chapter 1. Contextualising the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls
  • Chapter 2. The 2024 National Poll: Creative Blending of National and Regional Voices
  • Chapter 3. Regional Variations in 2024 Parliamentary Election
  • Part B – The Regional Scene
  • Chapter 4. The Rise of West Bengal: Everything Then and Nearly Nothing Now
  • Chapter 5. The Changing Political Tapestry of West Bengal, 1977–2011
  • Chapter 6. Changing Political Tapestry in West Bengal During the 2024 Parliamentary Elections
  • Conclusion
  • Bibliographical Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

To the foot soldiers of democracy

Table of Contents

List of Tables

Preface

Introduction

Part A – The National Scene

Chapter 1Contextualising the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls

Chapter 2The 2024 National Poll: Creative Blending of National and Regional Voices

Chapter 3Regional Variations in 2024 Parliamentary Election

Part B – The Regional Scene

Chapter 4The Rise of West Bengal: Everything Then and Nearly Nothing Now

Chapter 5The Changing Political Tapestry of West Bengal, 1977–2011

Chapter 6Changing Political Tapestry in West Bengal During the 2024 Parliamentary Elections

Conclusion

Bibliographical Notes

Bibliography

Index

Tables

Table 1.Election results, 2014 and 2019

Table 2.Lok Sabha poll in Odisha, 2024

Table 3.Social profile of the voters and party support

Table 4.Results of the parties in the fray, 2024 Lok Sabha poll

Table 5.Results of the State Assembly election, 2024

Table 6.Results of Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha poll, 2024

Table 7.The 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections

Table 8.Caste community voting pattern in Uttar Pradesh, 2024 (figures in percentages)

Table 9.Results of Varanasi Lok Sabha polls, held in 2019 and 2024

Table 10.Results of Lok Sabha poll, 2024

Table 11.Performance of the Congress and CPM in 2024 Lok Sabha polls

Table 12.Result of 2021 West Bengal state assembly elections

Table 13.The 2006 West Bengal assembly results

Table 14.Share of the Left Front votes in the panchayats and zila parishads

Table 15.Indices of poverty in West Bengal

Table 16.Electoral performance of TMC, 2006

Table 17.Results of the 2011 West Bengal State assembly polls

Table 18.Results of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, West Bengal

Preface

This is an ethnographic study complemented by inputs from the website of the Election Commission of India. I owe a debt of gratitude to many who helped me gather data by being interactive informally, particularly those from Indian provinces in the Hindi heartland and West Bengal. As the aim was to understand voting behaviour, the informal dialogues hovered around those which were likely to have been decisive in shaping the voters’ choice of political parties and candidates in the fray. The Hindi heartland was the most significant since it was uncritically accepted by many that Ram Mandir was likely to help the incumbent ruling dispensation win nearly all the seats. It was a fulfilment of a commitment that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders made in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. West Bengal was equally important for the study because it was nearly universally believed that Trinamul Congress (TMC), the incumbent ruling party, was likely to see a reversal because of the exposé of financial scams in which its top leadership was involved. With their incarceration, the charge that they made disproportionate assets was established beyond doubt. The BJP ideologues and its grassroots workers also were very sure that its electoral performance would be better this time as the TMC was defensive. In both cases, the poll outcome was contrary to what was expected by many. The study thus confirms that there is hardly a static formula to persuasively comprehend voting behaviour in India.

The book is drawn on many supportive inputs I received from my friends and co-workers. I express my heartfelt gratitude to them. I owe a great deal to Indrani Dutta, the acquisition editor of Peter Lang International Academic Publishers because, without her personal interests in the project, it would not have been possible for me to complete the manuscript within a stipulated deadline. I was also keen to publish the book given the topicality of the theme; it should hit the stands as soon as possible. I am glad that my editor understood my point and expedited the processes to honour her commitment.

I must make a special mention of our daughter, now a doctoral student at Cornell University, USA, for her significant inputs in sharpening many of the arguments which held the key to conceptualisation of the human behaviour. With her excellent editorial skills, she also helped improve the style in which the narrative was woven. I express my gratitude to Pablo, our son who is pursuing post-graduate studies in Pune. He also contributed to my academic prowess in his own way. Sanchita, my wife, played a determining role in sustaining my academic creativity by being both supportive and critical at the same time.

Details

Pages
214
Publication Year
2025
ISBN (PDF)
9781803749501
ISBN (ePUB)
9781803749518
ISBN (Softcover)
9781803749495
DOI
10.3726/b22684
Language
English
Publication date
2025 (July)
Keywords
Election parliamentary poll contesting political parties Ram Mandir voting behaviour Hindi heart land BIMARU States Depoliticization and Ideational Vison Bidyut Chakrabarty
Published
Chennai, Berlin, Bruxelles, Lausanne, Oxford, New York 2025. 214 pp., 22 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Bidyut Chakrabarty (Author)

Former Vice Chancellor of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India; he also served the department of Political Science, university of Delhi for nearly three decades.

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