-The Hindu Caste demographics do not have the deterministic effect on electoral outcomes that is often assumed As a new round of State elections approaches in India, Political Parties are crafting their electoral strategies. A large part of this exercise consists of constituency mapping, or gathering data about caste and community demographics, information about the local balance of power between groups, and the identification of local caste leaders, with the aim of...

-The Hindu Opinion comes at a time when Telangana SEC is set to carry out an e-voting experiment Former Chief Election Commissioners (CEC) have raised a range of concerns, from maintaining secrecy of ballots to bringing Political Parties on board, around the idea of online voting and remote voting, at a time the Telangana State Election Commission is set to carry out an e-voting experiment and the Election Commission of India, too,...

-The Hindu Absence of data has created difficulties in providing special facilities to BCs, says Jharkhand CM Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, leading an all-party delegation from the State, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday to demand caste-based census and handed over a memorandum for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The delegation included leaders of nine Political Parties including the principal Opposition party BJP and ally Congress. “Along with members of the all-party...

-The Hindu A precise caste census is difficult, but the data will be useful to drive social policy The idea of a national caste census might be abhorrent when the stated policy is to strive for a casteless society, but it will be useful to establish statistical justification for preserving caste-based affirmative action programmes. It may also be a legal imperative, considering that courts want ‘quantifiable data’ to support the existing levels...

-National Herald Sanjay Nishad has emerged as the new poster boy of OBC politics in UP as all Political Parties are locked in an intense race to woo non dominant OBCs, who constitute about 35% of the population On Thursday night a meeting of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was held with BJP national president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. In the latter half...