India's 2004 elections

India's electoral politics continues to be full of surprises. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and coalition to an early election in May 2004 on the basis of economic progress that they labeled 'India Shining. Thus the economy and governance became issues in a manner that is unusual for a polity more accustomed to personalities, electoral waves based on transitory phenomena, reli gious identity passions such as Hindutva, caste, tribal, and minority concerns. India Shining met its match in the Congress party-led coali tion emphasis on attacking poverty.

Economic themes dominated the national dialog in 2004, but votes are cast for individual members of Parliament, and the same variables differ as they operate in each state. Thus, two are followed in this volume even more than in the two previous vol approaches umes in this election series from Sage Publications. One set of chapters in this volume focusing on the national level, are comparative, or on themes that transcend individual states. A second set continues the earlier focus on state politics, with special attention to tribal politics. Taken together, the three volumes provide a rich panorama of electoral politics and social change at the national and state levels in India from independence in 1947 through the elections of 2004.