UP Election 2022

2022 UP Polls and Shifting Discourse around Electoral Politics

  India’s political pundits have now started thinking about what will be the possible fate of the Hindutva politics, if the UP electoral outcomes will not be in favour of the BJP? This election is now considered as a historic in nature and its result will have the national impact (ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha). More importantly, the elections results will[Read More...]

UP Prepares for Change

As Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections draw to a close, a wind of change seems to be blowing through the state. Initially it was thought that because of farmers movement the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance will dominate Bharatiya Janata Party only in western UP. Although revival of SP had begun much before the elections but it was believed that BJP[Read More...]

Finally BJP Forced To Focus On People’s Issues

In the middle of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections the Bhartiya Janta Party published a full front page advertisement a day before and on the day of polling for fourth and fifth phase. This advertisement is basically electoral promises. According to Section 126 of the Representation of Peoples Act all campaigning must stop 48 hours before the conclusion of polling.[Read More...]

UP Elections: Sex and the Sanyasi

How is it that even as Uttar Pradesh  goes to the polls, even as desperate youth go on a rampage to demand employment, their Chief Minister remains focused on evoking violent fantasies around the ‘M’ of the Mafia.  How is it that the facts of Kairana matter so little when Adityanath evokes the “Kashmir-like” Hindu exodus?  How is it that[Read More...]

Why communalising the election remains final recourse for BJP to win Uttar Pradesh

The election tempo in Uttar Pradesh is getting more communal with every phase of voting, thanks to the virulent communal campaigning of incumbent BJP. With its sizeable population, existence of diverse caste groups, active identity politics, considerable muslim minority population, the mandate of Uttar Pradesh resulting from the 403 assembly seats will be decisive in understanding the future course of[Read More...]

Assembly Elections: Scenario and Consequences

The assembly elections in five states, being held from February 10 to March 7, 2022, are bound to have an impact on both: the politics of power and the politics of ideology. The impact of these elections on the politics of power is being discussed more and more in political parties, mass media and citizens’ discourse. With the acceptance and[Read More...]

New situation in the North India

A new situation is being emerged in some parts of North India. The states where elections are being held include Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab. Uttar Pradesh A new picture is emerging in this state which is the integration of Bahujan castes like never before. Yadav, Jatt, Kurmi, Rajbhar etc. The integration of OBC castes and some Dalit castes, who had[Read More...]

Only by projecting revolutionary alternative can fascism be toppled in Uttar Pradesh

Summary of conditions prevailing in UP. Today the reign of Adityanath Yogi is reminiscent of a ruthless emperor retaining the throne, even at the cost of trampling on the people. Hindu Communal fascism is simmering at a boiling point. This despite the fact that people in Uttar Pradesh, mainly agrarian and mostly backward state, have suffered a lot from criminal[Read More...]

Red is the new alert for Prime Minister?

Historian Ramchandra Guha in his book ‘India after Gandhi’ quotes a letter of RSS Chief Golvalkar where Golvalkar saw growing cadres of communists as a threat and wrote a letter to Sardar Patel offering support of RSS to counter this threat of ‘Red Alert’. Now, the growing threat of Red is again in the news and the Prime Minister of[Read More...]

Yogi in Troubled Waters?

Not too long ago, it seemed return of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in Uttar Pradesh (UP) with Yogi Adityanath as chief minister would be virtually a cakewalk for him. Suddenly, speculations about political winds not favouring him but his key rival – Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) have raised questions about Yogi’s credentials. It is possible, state elections may[Read More...]