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1 Research Paper Volume 2 Issue 5 January 2015 International Journal of Informative & Futuristic Research ISSN (Online): Regionalization Of Indian Politics: A Study In Paper ID IJIFR/ V2/ E5/ 007 Page No Subject Area Geography Key Words Diversity, Regionalization, Delineate, Competitiveness, Cultural Dr. Ramesh Singh Parmar 1 Associate Professor, Department of Geography D.A.V College, Ambala City Abstract The socio-cultural diversity of India leads to pave the way for the rise of Region-dictated political parties, which make Indian politics more complex. By the year 1996, surprisingly there were as many as 28 various parties with strong regional roots. The Indian party system is not a Bi-party or two party systems as that of in U.K or USA and even the multi-party system is not similar to that of France or other European countries. The 1996 parliamentary election was a historical moment in relation to regionalization of Indian politics. National or All India party, Intra-regional party, Regional and Local parties are the various types of parties in India in terms of geographical expansion. Here, an attempt has been made to delineate the geographical regions of party competitiveness at all India scale. 1. Introduction In this paper, an attempt has been made to identify the constituencies of high and low party competition, and by combining such constituencies, some regions are identified of very high competitiveness or no competition regions (where single party emerged as the only party). Degree of party competitiveness has been analyzed to the parliamentary constituency level in a parliamentary election of All the parliamentary constituencies have been studied under four categories of competitiveness, which are: One party constituency, one party Dominant constituencies, two party constituencies and Multi-party constituencies. Different authors had developed many methods for measuring the competitiveness among the parties, such as: Candidates per seat, serious candidates per Seat, electoral proximity (Ian Robinson, 1971). Goyal and Hahn (1966) developed ten typologies Copyright IJIFR

2 of observations based on distribution of votes, Peter McDonough, however, slashed these ten categories into four categories. 2. Aims And Objective Of The Study The Main objectives of the present study are as follows: - I. To know the spatial pattern of competitiveness among the parties in the election of II. To What extent the electoral support for each political party is regionally concentrated or uniformly spread over the entire area of states. III. To delineate the regions where the competition was between the national parties and the areas where regional parties gave a stiff competition to national parties. 3. Data Base The present study is based on the secondary sources of data. The electoral data 1996 parliamentary elections have been collected from election Commission of India. The map of the parliamentary constituencies is provided by the office of the Chief Election commissioner, Delhi. 4. Methodology And Techniques Both Statistical and Cartographic methods have been used to know the voting patterns and competitiveness among the parties. Das Gupta and Morris Jones developed their own method by taking District as a Unit of analysis. This Modification is also not devoid of drawbacks. But comparatively better than the other available methods, So, in the present study the method developed by Jones and Das Gupta has been used with modification - by taking Parliamentary Constituency as a unit of analysis rather than district as a unit. Thus in the present study, all parliamentary Constituencies have been divided into the following four Categories in terms of competitiveness. 1. One Party Constituencies a>=50% A-b >= 20% 2. One party Dominant Constituencies 40% <= a < 50% a-b >= 20% 3. Two party Constituencies a+b >= 60 % a-b < 20% c < 15% 4. Multi Party Constituencies a <40% and a+b <60% a+b >= 60% and c>= 15% Whereas a= % share of the leading party in the constituency. b= % share of the Second party in the constituency. C=% share of the Third party in the constituency. 1311

3 Figure 4.1: India Parliamentary Constituencies 5. Party Competition In Eleventh Parliamentary Election 5.1 One Party Constituency In this election, the one party constituency has significantly increased its number from 85 constituencies in the 1991 election to 102 in the 1996 election. These one party constituencies are scattered throughout India, without showing any regional concentration. The state wise distribution of one party constituency is as follows: The highest number of one party constituency is found in Tamilnadu, where 33 constituencies witnessed the one party constituency. 1312

4 These constituencies are scattered all over the state. In Tamilnadu, in 17 parliamentary constituencies the DMK party emerged as the leading party, whereas, in other 16 constituencies Tamil Manila Congress (Moopanar) emerged as the leading party. In Maharashtra, there are six constituencies (Ratnagiri, Mumbai North, Thane, Jalna, Baramati and Sangli) of one party category. In Karnataka, the Chikkodi (sc) parliamentary constituency is the only constituency of this category in this state, where the Janata Dal emerged as the only party. In the Eastern states, both the states of West-Bengal and Bihar witnessed the 8 constituencies each of this category, where as in Orissa, only four constituencies of this category. In Bihar, in most of the constituencies, Janata Dal emerged the only party, whereas in Orissa, the Indian National Congress emerged as the only party in all four constituencies. In West Bengal, left parties (CPM) emerged as the only party. In the Eastern most state, 8 constituencies are of no competition, the distribution is as follows-2 in Assam (Dibrugarh & Autonomous district), 2 in Meghalaya (Shillong and Tura) and one each in Arunanchal Pradesh, Nagaland, sikkim and Tripura states. In North India -U.P has recorded only five constituencies (Pilibhit, Ballia, Kanpur, Khurja(sc) & Bagpat) which are mainly spread in the Western U.P. In Madhya Pradesh, seven constituencies witnessed the one party constituencies category, where the Bhartiya Janata Party emerged as the leading party. Among other Northern states, in Himachal Pradesh (Shimla) and Mandi constituencies) the Indian National Congress and in Haryana (Bhiwani Constituency) the Haryana Vikas Party (Regional party) emerged as the leading parties. There are some states, where even a single constituency could not qualify for this category are Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala in South, Jammu & Kashmir in the North and Manipur, Mizoram in the Easternmost states. 5.2 One Party Dominant Constituencies In the previous two elections of 1989 and 1991 there were only 10 one party dominant constituencies, where as in 1996 parliamentary election, there are 13 constituencies of this category. In the Indo-Gangetic plains, there are seven constituencies of this category, whereas, in Deccan plateau there are 4 constituencies and remaining are in two states (J&K and Orissa). There are 14 such states, where even a single constituency could not qualify for this category. The one party dominant constituencies are only limited to the 8 states, whereas, among Union-Territories even not a single constituency witnessed the one party dominant constituency In the Hindi-heartland, Madhya-Pradesh recorded 3 constituencies(guna, khajuraho and Bhopal) of one party dominant category. In all these constituencies, the Bhartiya Janata party emerged as the dominant party. Karnal and Hisar are the two constituencies of Haryana, which fall under this category. In karnal, Bhartiya Janata Party and in Hisar, Haryana Vikas Party emerged as the dominant party. One each constituency in Bihar, Uttar-Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir also fall under this category. Indian National Congress emerged as the dominant party in Rajmahal (ST) constituency (Bihar) and Baramullah constituency (J&K). The Bhartiya Janata Party emerged as the dominant party at Allahabad constituency of Uttar Pradesh, without having any competition from the rival party. In South India, the highest number of one party dominant constituencies are in Maharashtra, there are three constituencies- Karad, Parbhani and Mumbai Northeast, there three different parties emerged as the dominant party e.g. Bhartiya Janata Party in Mumbai North east, Indian National Congress in Karad and Shiv-Sena in Parbhani parliamentary constituency

5 Sr. No Table 5.2.1: Frequency Distribution of Constituencies under different categories of competition -Eleventh General Election States / U.T One Party Constituencies One Party Dominant Constituencies Two Party Constituencies Multi-Party Constituencies 1 Andhra Pradesh 2 Arunachal Assam Bihar Goa Gujarat Haryana H.P J & K Karnataka Kerala M.P Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamilnadu Tripura U.P W. Bengal In Karnataka, the Bidar Schedule caste constituency is the only one party dominant constituency, where Bhartiya Janata Party emerged as the dominant party. In the Easternmost states, not even a single constituency could qualify for the one party dominant category. 5.3 Two Party Competition Constituencies In this election, 231 constituencies are such where the competition was between two parties, which are higher than the other categories of competitiveness. The two party competition constituencies are spread all over India. A close look on party competition map shows that there are three or four pockets of two party competition constituencies. First pocked is consist of Thar desert, Kathiawar Peninsular and Malwa Plateau, where most of the constituencies are under this category. The second packet is consisting of Chattisgarh area and Telengana-Plateau region (Fig.4.3). Third pocket is extended in Malabar coast, Goa coast and North Circar area in coastal region. Another pocket is found in Indo-Gangetic plains, in this region there are two areas of this category -- one is in lower Ganga plains and another is in Doaba region of Punjab. 1314

6 The state-wise distribution of two party competitions is as follows: in the Northern states, Bihar recorded 26 constituencies of two party competitions, where in most of the constituencies the competition was mainly between Janata Dal and Bhartiya Janta Party or Indian National Congress and B.J.P. In Madhya-Pradesh, there are 25 two party competition constituencies, where the competition was mainly between the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Dal Party and in few constituencies Bahujan Samaj party entered into the fray. In Rajasthan, two party competition constituencies are 20 in number, where the main contenders were Bhartiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress. In Uttar-Pradesh, only 10 constituencies are of two party competitions which are scattered all over the state. The competition was mainly between Bhartiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party (SP) in six constituencies (Bareilly, Lucknow, Faizabad, Gonda, Domariaganj and Mirzapur). In Banda and Aligarh constituencies the competition was between the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and the Bhartiya Janata Party. In other Northern states, the constituencies of this category could not touch the double figure. In the Southern states, Andhra Pradesh witnessed the highest number of two party competition constituencies (25). In this state the competition was mainly between the National Party(Congress) and the Regional Party(Telugu Desam Party). Kerala is the only state in the South, where all the constituencies are of two party competition categories, here, the competition was between the left parties and the Indian National Congress. In other a state, the distribution of two party constituencies is as follows: Maharashtra (16), Karnataka (7) and Tamilnadu (2). Figure 5.3.1: India Party Competition 1315

7 In the Eastern states, West-Bengal recorded the largest number of two party constituencies (31), and the competition was mainly between Congress and the Left parties (CPM). In the Easternmost states, only 5 constituencies witnessed the two party competitions. Arunanchal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim are the states where even not a single constituency could enter into the two party competition categories. 5.4 Multi Party Constituencies In the election of 1996, the highest number of multi-party constituencies is recorded since There are 196 parliamentary constituencies, where the competition is between more than two parties. More than 50 percent constituencies (103) are concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic plains, nearly onethird in the Deccan plateau and a few constituencies in the Assam Valley. The state-wise distribution of multi-party constituencies is as follows: In the Northern states, Uttar-Pradesh recorded the highest number of multi-party constituencies (67), where the competition was mainly between the Bhartiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. In Bihar, there are19 multiparty constituencies, which are mainly concentrated in the Eastern and Southern Bihar, where the competition was mainly between Congress, BJP, SAP, JD and in some constituencies the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Left parties also entered into the fray. In other Northern states, only a few constituencies of Haryana (6), M.P (5), Punjab (6) and Rajasthan (3) witnessed the multi-cornered competition. In the Southern states, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of multi-party constituencies (23), where the main contenders were Shiv-Sena, BJP, Congress (1), RPI and Janata Dal. In Karnataka (19) and Andhra Pradesh (17) the constituencies of this nature are spread all over the state. In the Easternmost states, most of the multi-party constituencies are spread in Valley of Assam (9), where the competition was mainly between Assam Gana parishad, BJP and the Congress. In other Eastern states only two constituencies of this nature are found -- one each in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. There are some states like Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, H.P and Kerala, where even a single constituency of this category could not qualify for multi-party competition. The all India pattern shows that in multi-party competition the regional party (is) gave a tuff competition in their respective strongholds or regions. 6. Conclusion Regional and state parties are filling the space vacated by the weakening of the national parties. It was noticed that the two main national parties the congress and the BJP account for 300 to 350 seats in the Lok Sabha since Regional & State parties share about 200 remaining Lok-Sabha seats. The collective share of seats and votes of the regional and state parties showed an upward trend. Their seat share rose from a mere 27 to 127 in 1996 parliamentary election. Likewise their vote share rose from 9.3 percent in 1989 to 21.3 percent in The regional parties attracted towards two poles Indian national Congress and BJP within the regionalized multi-party system or regrouped around these magnets by forming pre and post poll alliances. In some regions, regional parties bite the dust to the national parties and win by overwhelming majority votes. References [1] Butler, D., India decides, Elections , Delhi: L M Books, [2] Dasgupta, Biplap, and Moorish Jones, W.H., Patterns and Trends in Indian Politics An Ecological analysis of aggregate data on Society and Election, New Delhi: Sallied, [3] Dikshit, R.D, Geography of Election: Indian context, Delhi Rawat Publication, [4] Johnston, R.J., Geography of English Politics- The 1983 General election London: Croomhelm,

8 [5] Nuna, S.C., Spatial Fragmentation of Political Behaviour in India, [6] Rana, M.S., INDIA VOTES: Lok-Sabha and Vidhan Sabha election, Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, [7] Singh, H.D., 543 faces of India: Guide to 543 Parliamentary constituencies ( ), New Delhi: Newsmen Publisher, [8] Taylor, P.J Johnston, R.J and Shelly F.M.L (ed.), Developments in, London and New York: Rutledge, ARTICLES: [9] Agnew, J.A, Place and Political Behaviour - The Geography of Scottish Nationalism, Political Geography Quarterly, vol.-iii, 1984, PP [10] Amani, K.Z, 'Elections in Haryana (India) - A Study of the Geography, vol. 17, 1970, PP [11] Dikshit, R.D, 'On the Place of Electoral Studies in Political Geography', Transaction Institute of Indian Geographers, vol. 2, No. 2, 1980, PP [12] The 1980 Assembly Election in Punjab - An Enquiry into Bases of Political Support', Annals of the National Association of Geographers, vol. 2, No. 1, 1982, PP [13] Sharma J.C, The Indian Context and Geographical Study of voting Behaviour', Indian Geographical Studies, vol. 19, 1982, PP [14] Singh, C.P, 'Geography and Electoral Studies', Transaction Institute of Indian Geographers, vol. 3, No. 1, 1981, PP [15] 'Indian - Some Methodology aspects', Annals of the National Association of Geographers, vol. 1, No. 2, 1981, PP