Overview

Political parties and party systems in India are in transition. The process that was set in motion between 1967-69 (first jolt to the INC in the fourth general election, visible appearance of alternative space in several states and a split in the party) and 1971 (a new Congress - it was certainly not the INC of the national movement fame - with generational change, an organisational change and the change of election symbol) took shape in several phases. In 1977 the first substantive alternative space emerged at the national level and, in retrospect, created the feasibility of different parties to bridge 'ideological' divides to come together to share power. It reversed in 1980 when the Congress moved towards familial succession, with first Sanjay Gandhi and following his tragic air crash death, Rajiv Gandhi becoming the heir apparent, which the 'party' approved and it continues to the day. Rajiv Gandhi's ascent to the prime ministerial chair following his mother's tragic assassination in October 1984 (a new generation, third from the family, takes over), and a popular endorsement for a new generation non-politician leader (a clean slate as analysts commented then) from the electorate, in retrospect, was only another step in the direction of the decline of the grand old party in its role as a giant political platform for India's diverse population and a social coalition of a spectrum like society.

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