From Nehru to Vajpayee, it has been a roller-coaster ride for the world’s largest democracy. A charismatic leader and a stable phase in the heady years after freedom. A great split in the country’s oldest political party. A strong willed woman leader who turned autocratic. A “Second Azadi†that did not last. The return of the political ‘Dynasty’ and its great fall. A mindless assassination bringing an era to an end. From a virtual single party monopoly to an age of hung Houses and uneasy coalitions and their inevitable coming apart. From a strong Central authority to a truly federal polity, the Indian Union has seen it all. Taking a long look back at the elections in India since Independence, this book traces the ups and downs witnessed by the Indian polity under a dozen Primed Ministers in the fifty years of independence. With graphics and charts on the fluctuating fortunes of the major contenders in each state, if focuses on the last poll of the millennium that appeared to put years of uncertainty behind. Relating the story of how the voter put India, hopefully, back on the road to stability, it also provides a flavour of the campaign, contenders, and the issues that exercised the voters†mind in an election that the country could do without. A complete computer analysis of the shifting voting patterns, makes the account complete.
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