Coalition Politics in India : Selected Issues at the Centre and the States

India is in an era of coalition politics in which state politics plays a major role. This compact book breaks new ground in empirical discoveries about the basis of stable coalitions in Indian states, and also theorises the viability of multi-party coalition governments at the national level in comparative perspective, and examines the dynamics of competition and coalition formation. It consists of two chapters on national-level coalitions and five chapters on states that have had significant experience of coalition politics - West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Maharashtra and Bihar. All chapters are based on extensive data collection and interview-based fieldwork with political actors. The key findings are summarised in the concluding chapter, that is, there is a clear pattern across states to the stability of coalitions at the state level over time, and consists of two central factors - stable pre-electoral seat-sharing and portfolio-sharing arrangements.