Yadav, Yogendra. "Electoral Politics in the Time of Change: India's Third Electoral System, 1989-99". Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.34, No.35 (1999): 2393-2399.

Yadav, Yogendra. "Electoral Politics in the Time of Change: India's Third Electoral System, 1989-99". Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.34, No.35 (1999): 2393-2399.

• The author argues that India democracy during the 1980s and 1990s has been so volatile because the tensions between the political equality of democracy and social and economic inequalities of Indian society. In previous decades, social and economic elites were powerful enough to exert political power, but now these tensions are playing out in politics (2393).
• India has experienced three different electoral systems, in the sense of political orders, since independence, with the most recent beginning in 1989. The first system lasted from 1952 to 1967, and was defined by the domination of the Indian National Congress in uncompetitive elections against a divided, regional opposition. Voters generally mobilized as a jati rather than individuals by local elites (2393-2394).
• The second election system lasted from 1971 to 1989. It was defined by the end of Congress hegemony resulting from the greater political mobilization of middle classes and the lower castes during the late 1960s. While the electoral system is still defined by alliance with or opposition to Congress, elections are now competitive (2394).
• The third electoral system began in 1989 with the defeat of Congress. The Janata Dal party, led by Vishwanath Pratap Singh, managed to successfully challenge and defeat Congress. The 1989 election marks a demographic turning point for the increased political mobilization of Muslims and dalits in politics. It also sees the Indian political system fracture along the lines of 'Mandal, Mandir, and Market', referring to the simultaneously events of the expansion of reservations following the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, the politicization of religion, and the first round of economic liberalization (2394). 
• The key characteristic of the third electoral system is the end of Congress as the dominant feature in elections. Previous elections were between Congress or an anti-Congress bloc, now there are multiple distinct political parties for voters to choose between (2395).
• Despite early political isolation for its extreme position on the Ayodhya temple, the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] has managed to forage alliances with other parties during the 1990s and expand outside of its previous geographic base of the northern Hindi Belt and demographic base of urban Brahmins. At the end of the 1990s, it is the primary opposition to Congress (2395).
• The other parties in the third Indian electoral system are regional and state-based, but often take unique ideological stances which could potentially appeal to national electorates (2395).
• Although use of the first-past-the-post system of voting in India has not resulted in a two-party system at the national level, it has essentially resulted in multiple two party systems at the state level. Although many parties exist in the Lok Sabha, voters in each distinct still have a limited choice between a small number of viable parties (2396).
• There are other related issues with Indian democracy, especially the similarity of Congress and the BJP on many important policy issues. The similarity of the BJP and Congress policies, combined with the effective exclusion of many small political parties from agenda-setting means that the ability of voters to select policies important to them is still limited (2399).
• Incumbent government and representatives in India during the 1980s and 1990s rarely got reelected. The majority of state governments were thrown out after their term, as were half of all representatives in the Lok Sabha. This trend has been declining in the 1990s, but is still pronounced (2396).
• The third electoral system is marked by the increased political activity of the lower castes, particularly the dalits, who are now more likely to vote than educated upper castes. This change is partially because many dalits, especially in northern India, only gained the practical ability to vote during the 1990s. Turnout among adivasi and women has also jumped during the 1990s (2397).
• The demographic composition of politicians really began to change in the 1990s, with the decade seeing the first dalit MPs elected in multiple states. However, while dalits have benefitted from these changes, the proportion of Muslim and female MPs remains largely unchanged (2396-2397).
• As a result of increased dalit political participation, issues of caste are now being discussed in Indian politics, especially within the framework of issues of social justice. Many of the political parties built to appeal to these social justice concerns, however, did not develop economic policies, effectively isolating dalit politics from the major economic decisions on liberalization and globalization, which are still mainly made by elite parties (2397-2398).
• Caste politics have existed since the formation of Indian democracy in the 1950s, yet the third electoral system marks a change from previous politicization of caste. Under the first and second systems, parties appealed to specific jati as national voting blocs. In the third system, parties target different castes in different states, appealing to upper castes in one states and dalits in another. This system has prevented a national political movement forming from the lower castes (2398).
• Prior to the 1990s, state boundaries were not politically important. During the first electoral system, they were irrelevant, and during the second system, they were absorbed within a larger north-south divide. Since the 1990s, states have become the primary locus of Indian political life and identity (2399).