Indian Politics & Policy: Vol. 5, No. 1, Summer 2025

We are privileged to have Neelanjan Sircar and Rahul Verma, two accomplished scholars of Indian politics, as guest editors of this special issue on India's 2024 Parliamentary Election. We believe that a year's span is perfect timing for digesting and analysing a significant electoral mandate. The guest editors must be congratulated for attracting a distinguished group of scholars to reflect on the significant learnings from this momentous election.

It cannot be overemphasized that the 2024 General Elections were historic. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after two resounding successes in the parliamentary elections of 2014 and 2019, had made loud declarations that the Party was destined to cross 400 seats in the parliament in 2024. It was a widespread concern among the political opposition that such a result would be permanently debilitating for India's democratic trajectory.

Table of Contents
Editor's Introduction
Rahul Mukherji

Guest Editors' Introduction: What Does the 2024 National Election Reveal About India?
Neelanjan Sircar and Rahul Verma

RESEARCH
What Does Voter Turnout Tell Us About Election Outcomes?
Dishil Shrimankar and Oliver Heath

Assessing the Integrity of India's 2024 General Elections
Milan Vaishnav

Caste, Social Justice, and the Politics of Inclusion in the 2024 Indian General Election
Gilles Verniers

Crossing Red Lines? The BJP and Democratic Legitimacy in the 2024 Election
Yamini Aiyar and Neelanjan Sircar

PERSPECTIVES
Chronicles of a Campaign Foretold: Electioneering in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections
Amogh Dhar Sharma

Caste in Candidate Nomination in the 2024 Election
Arvind Kumar

Class in Indian Politics
Indrajit Roy

Social Media and Party Organization in India
Shahana Sheikh

REVIEW ESSAY
Reimagining Muslim Agency and Identity in Post-Independence India
Asim Ali