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This book examines electoral politics in the state of Punjab, India as it has
evolved since the colonial period. It underlines the emergence of the state as
a singular unit for electoral analysis in the last three decades.
   This book:
Ashutosh Kumar
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Ashutosh Kumar
The right of Ashutosh Kumar to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kumar, Ashutosh, 1963– author.
Title: Electoral politics in Punjab : factors and phases / Ashutosh
   Kumar.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
   Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019044281 (print) | LCCN 2019044282 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Elections—India—Punjab. | Political campaigns—
   India—Punjab. | Political parties—India—Punjab. | Punjab
   (India)—Politics and government.
Classification: LCC JQ578 .K86 2020 (print) | LCC JQ578 (ebook) |
   DDC 324.954/552—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044281
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044282
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
    References                                                108
    Index                                                     115
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the CSDS-Lokniti team led by the centre’s direc-
tor Sanjay Kumar and consisting of Vibha Atri, Jyoti Mishra, Shreyas Sarde-
sai, and Himanshu Bhattacharya for making available the post-poll surveys
data concerning Punjab. Thanks also go to the fellow Lokniti network mem-
bers from universities/research centres from across India, especially to Jagrup
Singh Sekhon with whom I have collaborated in conducting the surveys, and
also have co-authored a couple of papers based on the survey data which are
cited in the volume. I am also thankful to the students of Panjab University
who have participated in the election surveys since the 2002 Assembly elec-
tions, going into the field and not only collecting the data but also coming
out with insights. I am beholden to my present and former colleagues in
the Department of Political Science, Panjab University and University of
Jammu for most fruitful academic comradeship. Malkit Singh and Hardeep
Kaur, researchers in the department, deserve special mention as they super-
vised these post-poll surveys. The monograph draws very extensively from
the earlier published works in academic journals, national newspapers and
book chapters on the subject by the author, cited in the text.
1      Framing state-level electoral
       politics
       An introduction
India for a long time has been hailed worldwide for being a successful democ-
racy. Its success, however, is being viewed and judged primarily in its mini-
malist form, encompassing nothing but a multiparty system, periodically
held free elections, high levels of participation, and contestation that result in
the peaceful and regular transfers of political power on a periodic basis. As
a ‘new’ democracy, India has an uninterrupted history of holding free elec-
tions over more than seven decades now (even the emergency imposed in the
mid-seventies did not disturb this, it only delayed it for a year).1 In its seven-
decades old democratic career, the country has been witness to 17 Lok Sabha
elections and nearly 400 Assembly elections, not to mention the countless
local bodies’ elections which have got their own salience after the seventy-
third and seventy-fourth constitutional amendment (Kumar, 2019c, p. 1).2
   India has become a far more representative democracy in recent decades,
as demonstrated by increased level of participation and representation. The
impressive size and scale of social and cultural identities along the regional
lines have contributed to the presence of political parties of different hues,
each having distinct claims to represent these identities. It is not only the
sheer number of parties but also the variety of these parties in terms of
their ideologies, the social and spatial support base that easily makes Indian
democracy akin to ‘an electoral laboratory’. Adam Ziegfeld (2016) considers
India ideal for studying party systems in comparative mode on two grounds:
First, India is comparable to western democracies for having a ‘lengthy
democratic history and record of free and fair elections’ with its many par-
ties, which are ‘short-lived, non-ideological, highly personalistic, and poorly
organised’, also compares with the party systems of the ‘new’ democracies.
Second, India also presents an ‘unparalleled setting’ to study the ‘puzzling
variation’ in the success of regional/state level parties as they ‘vary in their
age, ideological orientation, and support bases’ (Ziegfeld, 2016, p. 6).
   What has also impressed the political analysts is the sheer scale3 at which
the people’s participation takes place in India’s elections involving so many
candidates from diverse social and economic backgrounds in the fray. India’s
electorates constitute one-sixth of the global electorates. Arguably, India quali-
fies to be considered ideal for studying an impressive range of elections-related
2   Framing state-level electoral politics
issues like the electorates’ attitudes and behaviour, manifestos and cam-
paigns, and leadership models that these elections and contending parties
throw up. Indian voters stand out for not only that the voters from the
marginal social and economic background vote in almost equal percentage
than the privileged voters unlike the western democracies but also there has
been a sharp decrease in the gender gap and an increase in women turnout
in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, especially since 2002, as
per the election commission of India data (Kumar and Gupta, 2015, p. 8).
Indian ‘exceptionalism’ also is reflected in the voting behaviour of the Indian
voters as almost half of them firm up their voting choices even before the
commencement of the election campaign thus underlining their political
attentiveness (CSDS-Lokniti national election studies data). This is unlike
the western democracies where ‘time of vote choice’ data reveal that an
increasing number of voters are making their voting choices only after the
start of the election campaign (Sardesai and Mishra, 2017, p. 84).
   Speaking of leadership, India has had ‘many more political leaders than
other countries—leaders who have won and lost elections, run and mis-run
governments, and exercised the political imagination of their constituents
in myriad other ways’ (Guha, 2010, p. 288).4 The list includes not only the
national but also the other leaders who in their political life remained con-
fined to a particular state or a sub-region within a state and yet were able to
play a significant role at the national level (Kumar, 2019c, p. 265).5
   Arguably, elections form the ‘central institution’ of India’s democracy
(Lama-Rewal, 2009, p. 2). The centrality argument gets credence when one
thinks in procedural/ institutional terms. At a time when there is a percep-
tible trust deficit even for the constitutional bodies and functionaries (not to
mention the statutory bodies), the Election Commission of India (ECI) has
done fairly well to retain the confidence of the citizens. The ECI has been
globally recognised for holding ‘free and fair’ elections. Also, it has pushed
successfully for electoral reforms (Kumar, 2019c).
   Deepening trust deficit in formal democratic institutions along with lack
of effective ‘non-electoral’ democratic procedures, forums, and peoples’
movements on the ground6 persuade some political analysts to even suggest
that the meaning of democracy in India is getting ‘menacingly narrowed
to signify only elections’, as elections not only ‘legitimise and authorise the
democratic rule but does much more than this’ (Khilnani, 1997, p. 193;
Palshikar, 2013, p. 165).7 Connected to almost every aspect of the demo-
cratic polity in a significant way, elections in India carry ‘the entire society’s
aspirations to control its opportunities’ to the extent that as the ‘sole bridge
between state and society, they have come to stand for democracy itself’
(Khilnani, 1997, p. 58).8
   What has brought the institution of elections still closer to the citizens in
the last three decades is the introduction of local bodies’ elections as a result
of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments. It has added yet another level
of competitive electoral system extending it effectively to the grass-roots
                                       Framing state-level electoral politics     3
level, making it much more inclusive and competitive.9 Arguably, local elec-
tions now held every five years in every state under the supervision have fur-
ther strengthened and provided legitimacy to the basic framework of India’s
democratic regime (Kumar, 2019c).10
   Not surprisingly, then, the study of elections,11 electoral system and elec-
toral politics12 along with the study of parties and party system holds great
significance13 in the study of Indian politics. Significant social and political
upheavals taking place in India, having their impact over the electoral arena,
especially since the momentous 1990s, has been of great interest to the ana-
lysts (Kumar, 2019c).14
   Given the vibrancy of electoral democracy in India, greater academic focus
has been on the role of processes like politicisation, mobilisation and asser-
tion involving socially and politically dormant groups.15 Academic attention
has been drawn to the way the social basis of the power structure, especially
in village India, has undergone a shift through electoral route (Yadav, 1999,
p. 2393).
Focus on states
Sifting through elections related literature in India, one finds greater recognition
and acceptance of the emergence of states as analytical units in the last three
decades. States are being viewed as having emerged as the platforms where
not only the electoral politics but the whole gamut of political and economic
processes unfolds, which all have national impact (Kumar, 2017b, p. 277).
   Why states have emerged as the preferred analytical units rather than
election analysts attempting an ‘all-India’ based election studies needs to
be explained. A foremost factor that has brought focus on the state is the
politics of identity taking the centre stage. The upsurge in identity politics
has reconfigured the democratic politics of India in the last three decades
in a significant way as diverse social groups in India have increasingly been
politicised and mobilised on the basis of social cleavages rather than on
the basis of their common economic interests or ideology. There have been
struggles around the assertiveness and conflicting claims of the identity
groups, and of struggles amongst them, often fought out on lines of region,
religion, language (even dialect), caste, and community. These struggles
have found expressions in the changed mode of electoral representation
that has brought the local/regional into focus with the hitherto politically
dormant groups and regions finding voices. A more genuinely representative
democracy in recent India has led to the sharpening of the line of distinction
between or among the identity groups and the regions. These identity groups
are sought to be collectively recognised and mobilised either on the basis of
caste, tribe, language (script), or dialect. Almost all such social groups are
confined spatially to a particular state or sub-region within it, especially
after the reorganisation of the states on linguistic/ethnic basis undertaken in
the 1950s and 1960s. So invariably, processes of politicisation /mobilisation
4   Framing state-level electoral politics
/participation take place at the state/state sub-regional level, giving primacy
to local/regional over national (Kumar, 2017b).16
   That this can be an important ground for undertaking political research
on Indian states was recognised way back by Weiner (1968), much before
the Rath Yatra, Mandal, and the Mandir happened in the 1990s. A pioneer
in the discipline, Weiner had argued: ‘it (is) at the state level that the conflicts
among castes, religious groups, tribes and linguistic groups and factions are
played out’. Inevitably, in recent decades, the greater level of recognition of
constituent states in the Indian Union as the primary units of analyses has
led to the emergence of state politics as an autonomous discipline. Even
in the discipline of comparative politics, state-level variances have of late
received much more focus in the discussion of themes like ethnic move-
ments, party systems, developmental experiences, political institutions, and
democratisation, unlike in the past when India was always referred to in
cross-national perspective (Kumar, 2017b).
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