The Great Election Game

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY The Great Election Game The practice of democracy in India in recent years has moulded itself to fit certain predictable patterns. Thus, in February 2003, more than a year before state elections were due in Maharashtra, the Congress high command replaced incumbent chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh with Sushil Kumar Shinde. The move was ostensibly to consolidate further the dalit votes for the party, whose other main vote bank