IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indpol/v7y2019i2p176-190.html

The 2019 Indian Elections and the Ruralization of the BJP

Author

Listed:
  • Diego Maiorano

Abstract

The Indian general elections occurred amid a widespread and severe agricultural crisis. Many analysts thought that this could have a substantial impact on the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prospects to remain in office. This article, using post poll data, analyses the voting behaviour of two key sections of the electorate, the rural poor and the farmers. It shows that the BJP drew substantial support from both categories, across caste and class. Far from being a party of the urban upper classes and castes, the results of the 2019 elections mark the culmination of a decades-long process of ruralization and ‘proletarianization’ of the party.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Maiorano, 2019. "The 2019 Indian Elections and the Ruralization of the BJP," Studies in Indian Politics, , vol. 7(2), pages 176-190, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indpol:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:176-190
    DOI: 10.1177/2321023019874893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2321023019874893
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2321023019874893?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deshpande, Ashwini & Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2019. "Traditional hierarchies and affirmative action in a globalizing economy: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 63-78.
    2. Sujata Kundu, 2018. "Rural Wage Dynamics in India: What Role does Inflation Play?," Working Papers id:12774, eSocialSciences.
    3. Thachil, Tariq, 2014. "Elite Parties and Poor Voters: Theory and Evidence from India," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(2), pages 454-477, May.
    4. Zimmermann, Laura V, 2015. "May There Be Victory: Government Election Performance and the World's Largest Public-Works Program," IZA Discussion Papers 9161, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jeremy Bowles & Horacio Larreguy & Shelley Liu, 2020. "How Weakly Institutionalized Parties Monitor Brokers in Developing Democracies: Evidence from Postconflict Liberia," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 952-967, October.
    2. Assem Abu Hatab & Padmaja Ravula & Swamikannu Nedumaran & Carl-Johan Lagerkvist, 2022. "Perceptions of the impacts of urban sprawl among urban and peri-urban dwellers of Hyderabad, India: a Latent class clustering analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12787-12812, November.
    3. Ishan Anand & Anjana Thampi, 2021. "The Crisis of Extreme Inequality in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 663-683, September.
    4. Subedi, Mukti Nath & Rafiq, Shuddhasattwa & Ulker, Aydogan, 2022. "Effects of Affirmative Action on Educational and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Nepal's Reservation Policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 443-463.
    5. Ankush Goyal & Rajender Kumar, 2022. "Does Social Welfare Programmes Influence Households Trust in Local Administration and Their Political Participation? Evidence from the MGNREG Scheme in India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 16(3), pages 602-617, December.
    6. Pavithra Suryanarayan, 2017. "When do the poor vote for the right-wing and why: Status inequality and vote choice in the Indian states," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-20, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Khanna, Gaurav & Zimmermann, Laura, 2017. "Guns and butter? Fighting violence with the promise of development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 120-141.
    8. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2020. "Social Identity, Behavior, and Personality," Working Papers 308280016, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    9. Meya, Johannes & Poutvaara, Panu & Schwager, Robert, 2015. "Pocketbook voting and social preferences in referenda," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113120, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Utteeyo Dasgupta & Subha Mani & Smriti Sharma & Saurabh Singhal, 2023. "Social Identity, Behavior, and Personality: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(4), pages 472-489, April.
    11. Hyunwoo Kim, 2023. "Monetary technocracy and democratic accountability: how central bank independence conditions economic voting," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 939-964, May.
    12. Ashwini Deshpande & Rajesh Ramachandran, 2020. "Is COVID-19 'The Great Leveler'? The Critical Role of Social Identity in Lockdown- induced Job Losses," Working Papers 34, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    13. Deshpande, Ashwini & Khanna, Shantanu, 2021. "Can weak ties create social capital? Evidence from Self-Help Groups in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    14. Sitikantha Pattanaik & Silu Muduli & Soumyajit Ray, 2020. "Inflation expectations of households: do they influence wage-price dynamics in India?," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 244-263, September.
    15. Chau, Nancy H. & Liu, Yanyan & Soundararajan, Vidhya, 2021. "Political activism as a determinant of strategic transfers: Evidence from an indian public works program," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Bharathi, Naveen & Malghan, Deepak & Mishra, Sumit & Rahman, Andaleeb, 2021. "Fractal urbanism: City size and residential segregation in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    17. Anderson, Siwan & Francois, Patrick, 2023. "Reservations and the politics of fear," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    18. Diego Maiorano & Suruchi Thapar‐Björkert & Hans Blomkvist, 2022. "Politics as Negotiation: Changing Caste Norms in Rural India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(1), pages 217-248, January.
    19. Sthanu R. Nair, 2019. "India’s Agrarian Performance: A Comparative Analysis of UPA and NDA Regimes," Working papers 340, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    20. Cummins, Joseph & Guo, Jingyan & Agarwal, Neha & Aiyar, Anaka & Jain, Vaishali & Bergmann, Andrew, 2024. "Caste Differences in Child Growth: Disentangling Endowment and Investment Effects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indpol:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:176-190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.