ABSTRACT
This brief chapter provides an analytical framework to investigate possible linkages between political parties and opportunities for electoral mobilization of migrant communities, a subject that promises to be of increasing importance for elections in the future since internal migration in India has been increasing and is expected to continue to do so in the coming decades. It bears mentioning here that this analytical framework mainly addresses the question as it pertains to inter-state migrants, where the migration does not carry only economic consequences, but also involves ethno/linguistic/cultural contact and interaction between different linguistic, ethnic, and cultural groups. I posit that there are four clusters of variables to explain the nature of relationship pursued by parties with respect to migrant populations: (1) the character of migrant population; (2) the character of parties; (3) the organizational capacity of these parties; and (4) the type of party competition among various parties for electoral gains.
