Party mandates in the world’s largest democracy: Making and keeping campaign promises in India

Election promises occupy a central space in mainstream democratic theories. This thesis contributes to the study of election promises in non-Western democracies by studying pledge-making and fulfillment in the largest democracy in the world by population, India, for the first time. It studies election promises made by two major parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Indian National Congress, in five elections from 1999-2019. It subsequently draws inference by comparing the extent of pledge-making and fulfillment in India with established Western democracies.