Coalition Politics in India: Evolution, Challenges, and Implications for Democratic Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65327/es.v12i2.2543Keywords:
Coalition politics, Indian federalism, National Democratic Alliance, United Progressive Alliance, regional parties, democratic governance, anti-defection lawAbstract
India's transition from a single-party dominant system to an era of coalition and multi-party governance represents one of the most significant transformations in the functioning of its parliamentary democracy since independence. This article traces the historical evolution of coalition politics in India from the Congress system of the 1950s and 1960s through the fragmentation of the party system in the late 1980s, the consolidation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) between 1998 and 2014, and the return of coalition dependency for the BJP-led NDA after the 2024 general election. Drawing on coalition theory, federal studies, and the comparative literature on multi-party parliamentary systems, the article examines the structural, social, and institutional drivers that produced coalition politics in India, including the weakening of the Congress system, the rise of regional parties, the Mandal–Mandir realignment of the 1990s, and the increasing salience of state-level and caste-based cleavages. It then analyses the principal challenges associated with coalition governance in the Indian context cabinet instability, policy incoherence, coalition dharma and the leverage of small allies, corruption arising from patronage bargaining, and the tension between coalition arithmetic and programmatic governance. The article also explores the implications of coalition politics on federalism, representation and democratic accountability and suggests that although the coalition politics has often been linked to instability, it has also led to a more federal approach to governance, increased representation of previously marginalised regions and social groups, and adopted an approach to governance that has been more consultative. The article concludes by evaluating the sustainability of coalition politics in India in the aftermath of the elections of 2024 and examines the Indian experience in the context of the comparative literature on coalition governments.
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