Modern Communication Strategies and Electoral Dominance

Electoral success in India requires deliberate efforts on multiple fronts, including but not limited to communication strategies, building a leader’s personal appeal, political ideology and recently, appeasing the majority. Articles in this series tackle several aspects, using the backdrop of whether a new political system has been put in place after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014 and if this system resembles the erstwhile ‘‘Congress System’’ of the 1950s and 1960s. Even though the kind of electoral dominance achieved by the BJP in the national elections has been unprecedented in the last three decades, it failed to achieve similar results in state elections. Articles discuss the resonance of the voter with the politics of majoritarianism and whether the current system falls under the realm of “competitive authoritarianism” wherein formal institutions decidedly favour the current ruling party. Further, there is a centralisation of power wherein the prime minister is disproportionately credited for the welfare benefits of various schemes. Thus, this new political system is characterised by the politics of majoritarianism, competitive authoritarianism and centralisation of welfare delivery together with the use of innovative communication strategies. 

The papers are based on a roundtable organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS.