-Moneycontrol.com Uttar Pradesh Assembly election 2022: In all, 135 (22 percent) of 623 candidates in the third phase have criminal cases filed against them, according to an analysis of affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms and Uttar Pradesh Election Watch. In Uttar Pradesh, 135 (22 percent) of 623 candidates contesting third phase elections have criminal cases filed against them, according to an analysis of affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms...

-TheWire.in BJP has now realised that Hindutva and identity politics by themselves are not enough to win. In post-Mandal India, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempt to build electoral alliances tying upper castes and non-dominant OBCs is not new. This is a strategy the party used in the mid-1990s across North India to resist the consolidation of pro-Mandal parties and prevent the formation of large coalitions of “backwards”. Mid-1990s onwards, the BJP distributed...

-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 There is a need to acknowledge the project’s appeal and the intricacies of representation in order to counter it Modern democracies are erected upon the twin pillars of rights and representation. While rights define the minimum due of individuals and communities vis-à-vis the state, representation enables the diverse voices in a polity to be heard. However, most critiques interrogate Hindutva through the limited lens of representation, arguing that it essentially...

-The Telegraph The state's largest minority community has held key ministerial and other constitutional posts whether under the rule of Congress, Samyukta Socialist Party, Janata Party, Janata Dal or the RJD Patna: Bihar has for the first time since Independence got a ruling coalition without a single MLA from its largest minority community. None of the four parties in the National Democratic Alliance — the BJP, Janata Dal United, Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular...