State elections in India: data handbook on vidhan sabha elections 1952-85

This invaluable research and reference source book brings together all the electoral statistics relating to the Vidhan Sabha elections held during the period 1952-85.
Reliable and accurate electoral statistics are needed at all levels for quantitative analyses of Indian elections. At present, this information is available only in the reports pub lished by the Election Commission after each election. The Handbook collates all the relevant information from these reports and presents them in a uniform format so as to facilitate comparative analysis of election results.
The fifth volume of State Elections in India covers the South all the Vidhan Sabha elections and bye elections held between 1952 and 1985 in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry. The constituency results have been checked for errors and omissions and the state aggregates have been arrived at by adding the corrected constituency results. The Handbook reports data on voter turn out, the vote and seat shares of par ties and the party affiliations of the candidates. Since constituencies remain unaltered between the de cennial delimitations, the Handbook presents detailed constituency re sults in a single table for all such elections to facilitate comparison across elections. A state-wise comparability chart for districts is also presented at the end to help deter mine the extent of change brought about through alterations in the boundaries of districts and states in this period.
The Handbook is the result of a painstaking, long-term effort involving verification and compilation of electoral statistics. All institutions, political scientists and researchers concerned with elections will welcome this book.