COALITION POLITICS IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS OF EMERGING TRENDS SINCE 1989 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Abstract

Party System in India is unique both in its nature and dynamics. For a long period of time the
history of Indian politics has been characterised by one dominant party system with Indian National
Congress (INC) playing the pivotal role at the centre stage. The complexities and pluralities in the
Indian politics led to the development of full-fledged political parties. Since 1989, there has been
fractured mandate leading to the development of party coalitions in India. There has been an end to
the era of single party governments both at the national level as well as at the level of several states.
Therefore, drawing on the secondary sources, the objective of this paper is to analyse the positive
and negative impacts of coalition on Indian politics. The paper would also delineate the different
phases of party coalitions at the national level between 1989-2019.