Csaba Nikolenyi, "The New Indian Party System: What Kind of a Model?" Party Politics, 4 (July 1998), 367-380.

First Paragraph:

The1989 general elections marked the beginning of a new era in the Indian national party system permanently (Singh, 1990). The Indian National Congress Party that once used to command formidable majorities in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian national legislature, lost its hegenionic position in the party system. Although returning to office in 1991 to form a minority government, the party had clearly ceased to be the natural party of government in India.

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Sartori's typology of party systems
Table 2: Governmental majorities in the Lok Sabha, 1989-96
Table 3: The left-right location of Indian political parties
Table 4: Regional distribution of seats by bloc and year (%)
Table 5: Electoral polarization in the Indian party system, 1989-96
Table 6: Legislative polarization in the Indian party system, 1989-96
Appendix: Full names of political parties and alliances abbreviated in the text.

Last Paragraph:
In terms of Sartori's theoretical model, the Indian party system bears traits of both polarized and moderate pluralism. In terms of the number of parties, the width of the ideological space and the number of poles it is a case of polarized pluralism. However, the level of polarization is clearly lower than if it were a truly polarized system.