-Moneycontrol.com The BSP has recorded a humiliating performance in UP once considered its bastion. Unless Mayawati initiates immediate reforms, the party will fade into oblivion The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has received a drubbing in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. It has recorded its worst performance since inception, largely due to a bipolar contest which saw its non-core as well as some core voters shift to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the...
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Mandal vs Kamandal Redux? Caste Is Back as a Major Variable in UP Elections -Gilles Verniers and Christophe Jaffrelot
-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...
More »The fine print in Hindutva -Anshul Trivedi
-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...
More »Kisan politics shows the way to a possible populism -Mukul Kesavan
-The Telegraph There is something heroic about tens of thousands of farmers marching and wringing concessions from a BJP state government The farmers’ rally in Delhi, the Kisan Mukti March, organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) happened the day after the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and just before the assembly elections in Rajasthan. The politics of the rally was different from the politics of elections but the...
More »A very material shift -Sajjan Kumar
-The Hindu Occupational identities are competing with caste and religious identities in Madhya Pradesh The political mood of the people in Madhya Pradesh is complex. To understand voting behaviour only through the prism of caste is an outdated method in this State. In fact, occupational identities resonate across caste and religion. Employing the categories of farmers, labourers, government employees, small businessmen, the urban service classes, and so on helps us understand voter...
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