This paper examines that politics of investiture in India during the last twenty years. Although the Constitution of India does not require the incoming government to prove its legislative majority prior to taking office, it has been a matter of convention for the head of state to require that such a vote should be held. As long as a single party was returned with a parliamentary majority, as was the case in every election from 1952 to 1984, investiture was a matter of formality. However, since 1989 the party system has become extremely fragmented with no single party capable of winning a majority of the seats. Under these conditions, the politics of investiture have become much more complicated. This paper focuses on two key choices in the Indian investiture game: i) that of the President to decide whom to invite to form a government, and ii) that of the invited party to accept or not such an invitation.
