ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how India’s urban constituencies have voted since 1952. India is a useful case for exploring the alternative models. Urban-rural comparisons India’s urban constituencies are electorally more politicized than the Indian countryside. Urban residents have a greater tendency to vote in state assembly elections than do rural dwellers. In general, urbanity is a dependable guide to turnout in approximately half of the states electing each year; although in many of these same places the state context is relevant as well. Low-turnout urban constituencies are more evenly distributed. High urban turnout is powerfully conditioned by context, low urban turnout very much less so. In 1967, when the smaller parties and independents improved their position in urban India, the struggle was more sharply between Congress and candidates either of the radical Left or Right. The trend over time in both rural and urban constituencies is toward greater competitiveness.
