ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how the middle class and the other classes voted in the 2014 election. It focuses on the voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress ; voter preferences along the caste or community and age groups within classes, to the extent relevant; and economic policy, particularly as concerns economic liberalization. The chapter attempts to engage with certain theoretical formulations on the middle class, economic liberalization, the BJP and party system change. The chapter differs from author’s own earlier estimates of the middle class at the start of the 21st century and around 2005–6 in that it is much broader. Even those of the middle classes who are self-employed persons or private employees are, like public employees or rich peasants, the beneficiaries of a range of state subsidies including water, electricity, fertilizer, credit, fuel, higher education, public transport and even food.
