Analysis Of NDA And UPA Coalitions

Abstract

The multi-party coalitions formed since 1990’s in India are regarded as a kind of accommodative politics with all varieties of parties coming together in broad coalitions with national parties.Party system in India at the national level since 1998 has been loosely bipolar divided between the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition and the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition.  In the history of contemporary India, one of the great events had been the ability of 24 party NDA headed by BJP to govern for the entire elected term of 5 years i.e., from 1999 to 2004.  This has set a new agenda for governance and has challenged the hypothesis that the coalitions are usually unstable.  UPA was formed soon after the 14^th Lok Sabha elections in 2004.  This alliance was given the external support from the left front consisting of the four main leftist parties.  The completion of full term coalition by the NDA and the UPA has made the Indian coalition system appear as the only alternative available to Indian democracy. Naturally, the study and analysis of two major models of governance headed by a Hindu nationalist party (BJP) and secularism professing party (Congress) highlights the techniques and strategies required for the effective operation of coalition. Indian coalition experiment despite many drawbacks has shown that coalitions do not undermine democracy.

          This paper makes a comparative analysis of two different coalitions i.e. the NDA and the UPA.  This paper examines the partisanship and power sharing followed in the NDA and UPA coalitions, analyzes the components of the Common Minimum Program and working of the two coalitions. The pulls and pressures felt on these two coalitions are also highlighted to assess the challenges and prospects of coalition politics in India.