Introduction

Analysis of democracy in India becomes meaningful when it is seen from an election perspective, as it reflects the degree of trust of the electorate in a particular form of leadership, governance and political philosophy amidst an array of choices in a multiparty representative parliamentary system. Presently, given the debate over Special Intensive Review (SIR) outlined by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the entire country, it is important to explore the structure and agency involved in this complex overlapping relationship between election and democracy in contemporary India.

India has earned a reputation as a successful democracy largely due to its ability to hold free and fair elections at the national, state and local levels since 1952, under the supervision of the ECI. One can notice heterogeneities of party structure and party functioning across the federal units in India, where elections have been both the cause and the consequence of a paradigm shift in Indian politics from a centre-based politics to a more state-based politics. The ongoing process of federalisation of the electoral/party system has been most visible in the lessening of differentiation of approach on issue areas of the national and state party systems in the country on state-based issues with significant electoral and federal consequences (Kumar, 2019). The paradox is that democracy needs parties; parties are increasingly turning away from democracy in their leadership, internal structure and functioning. The situation of politics is more or less similar both at the Centre and state levels in India. We are faced with a system-defining moment where the electorate has an important agential role, and the ECI must be strengthened with all its reform measures to tackle the complexities involved therein (Chattopadhyay, 2015). Notwithstanding the lacuna of the first-past-the-post system of conducting elections in India (a gap between the percentage of votes and seats won) and given the fact that elections at any level happen after five years generally, calculations of getting support and lessening resistance during an election become the agenda for everyday activities, programmes and statements of political parties. Therefore, in India, the context, contour, commitment and concerns of electoral practices, electoral choices and electoral management are closely related to two versions of democracy one whose essence is enshrined in the Constitution and the other whose definition is manufactured every day based on native wisdom, leading to a concern of Indian electoral democracy drifting away from constitutionalism. more...