ABSTRACT
Introduction As described in the previous chapter, the Indian National Congress Party dominated the national party system of Independent India from 1952 until 1989. With the sole exception of 1977, the party won legislative majorities in every general election in this 37-year period. Although the Congress Party was defeated in 1977 it quickly regained its dominant position in the subsequent election held in 1980. In contrast, since 1989 the Congress Party’s share of the popular vote has shown a secular decline and the party has repeatedly failed to win a majority of the seats in the Lok Sabha. The decline of the dominant party has been accompanied by the inability of any other party to win a legislative majority, thus ushering in a period of successive hung parliaments in India. This change in the pattern of election outcomes heralds the arrival of a genuine multiparty system in the country (Nikolenyi 1998; Singh 1990).
