Ganatantra

The National Democratic Alliance managed to repeat its 2014 election performance in Maharashtra winning 41 seats; the United Progressive Alliance, despite the alliance with the NCP did worse than 2014. This, in a state which has seen farmer mobilisations and caste based agitation (by Marathas and Dalits, but for different reasons) needs to be unpacked. In this episode, Sarthak Bagchi, Assistant Professor at Ahmedabad University joins us to talk about how the Bharatiya Janata Party- Shiv Sena alliance managed to hold on in the state through careful incorporation of disparate caste groups, the importance of entrenched networks and the role of turncoats, and the impact of the Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi and MIM alliance on Dalit-Bahujan politics, and what lies ahead in the Assembly elections for Maharashtra later this year.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The results of the 2019 elections have shown that brand and personal messaging on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi played a large role in the massive victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Going forward, social media platforms, both established ones such as Twitter and Facebook, and newer entrants such as Tik Tok and Sharechat, will play a key role in political messaging and election campaigns. In this episode we're joined by Dr Joyojeet Pal, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan to explain how individual politicians use social media to build their personal brands with voters and citizens, and how political parties' messaging reflects this.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Election commentators and nerds of all hues pore over turnout numbers to see if they can read the tea leaves that point to the eventual verdict. It has been no different in the 2019 general elections, with discussions about phase by phase turnouts and what it implies. The final turnout in #Elections 2019 are not very different from 2014. In this episode, Sarayu and Alok discuss what turnout can tell you, the factors that influence it, and the impact of structural factors on the ground and institutions in mediating turnout.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a couple of days, discussions about the 2019 General elections will hinge on the release of exit poll numbers put up by various survey and media agencies. We explore what it takes to go from a good track record in calculating vote shares to problems in predicting how many seats a party will win. Why do opinion and exit polls struggle in India? Is it just a matter of resources, the complexity of the first-past-the-post-system in a diverse country, or the difficulty in integrating social theory into polling questions? How do you tell if an opinion or exit poll is credible? And perhaps most importantly, why does it matter?

To discuss this and more, we are joined by one of India's leading pollsters, Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies to help us make sense of the numbers and what lies behind them.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we are joined by Ankur Bhardwaj, Senior Editor at Business Standard to talk about the State of Haryana which goes to the polls in the 6th phase of polling. Assembly elections are also scheduled a few months after Lok Sabha polls suggesting that both could be impacted by the same trends and patterns. While the Jat community has dominated politics in the state of Haryana, the inter-caste violence that broke out in 2016 over reservation and many other issues exposed the political and social fault lines among the "chattis biradari" of Haryana. How have political parties moved to consolidate their support among various communities? Are we seeing a re-alignment among communities along very different party lines? Join us as we discuss these and more issues with Ankur.

You can follow Ankur Bhardwaj on twitter here: https://twitter.com/Bhayankur

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we are joined by Shoaib Daniyal of Scroll.in’s team to talk about politics in West Bengal and learn about how the BJP is mobilising in this critical state that goes to polls tomorrow. We learn about the trajectory of left politics in Bengal and its entrenchment, and then its gradual dissipation. We learn about the rise of the Trinamool, and now the right. The BJP seems to be gaining from the Left strongholds, building on disillusionment to implant a macho, pan-Hindu identity.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Contrary to popular perception, Rajasthan is a diverse state which features everything from well irrigated agricultural regions to deserts, large urban centres, to a significant tribal belt along the border with Gujarat. It was also the state where it was possibly the "Modi wave" began in 2013 leading to the eventual clean sweep of the State by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2014 elections.

In that context, what should we make of the Congress' victory in the Vidhan Sabha elections in 2018? Will the State vote in the same manner in the Centre as it did for the State or are their reasons to believe that the vote will be different this time? How do local political economies play into the electoral calculus?

We are joined by Roshan Kishore, Data & Political Economy Editor at Hindustan Times to look at what the data tells us about the State and what we might expect going ahead.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gujarat goes to the polls in the third phase of elections. In the last five years it has seen economic upheaval as a result of demonetisation and implementation of the GST. It has also seen mass agitation by Patidars and Dalits over reservations and atrocities respectively, and a resurgence of the Congress in the last Assembly elections. What are the issues on voters' minds this time? Will the economic downturn and agricultural distress play a role in determining the outcome? We're joined by Scroll.in's Aarefa Johari, an award winning journalist who has extensively covered the state in the last few years, to give us her thoughts and insights

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcast App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As parts of Assam and the North Eastern states of India go to the polls we take this opportunity to discuss some of the issues which have caused much discussion, debate and anxiety in the region. Specifically the implementation of the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the proposed introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill which aims to give accelerated citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Muslim majority countries around India. We are joined by Dr Suan to understand the background of the issue, why it has come to the fore at this time and what it means for the politics of not just Assam but the rest of India as well.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcast App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India's newest state goes to the polls tomorrow in the first phase of polls alongside its "parent" state. Though Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were once the same state, their political trajectories have been very different and likewise the socio - economic concerns.

In this episode we are joined by KK Kailash to discuss the evolution of politics in the two states, attempting to understand the policies of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the appeal of Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena and the difference between "regional" and "regionalist" parties.

You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcast App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.