Gilles Verniers

The author is assistant professor of political science, Ashoka University.

What Kairana means

Fri, Jun 01, 2018

What looks like an ideological battle from afar, BJP vs Rest, is an accumulation of local factors on the ground.

Gorakhpur in perspective

Thu, Mar 15, 2018

What do SP-BSP victories in UP by-polls prefigure for 2019? Not much

Constructing Democracy

Sun, Mar 04, 2018

What went into the makings of India’s democracy and the crucial role of bureaucratic cogs, big and small, in defining citizenship

Reading Gujarat verdict: Rural-urban divide underlined, Congress gains for future

Tue, Dec 19, 2017

The BJP has fallen short of the 150 seats promised by Amit Shah. More worryingly for the party, no regional leader has emerged.

Caste of characters

Fri, Dec 15, 2017

In Gujarat, religious polarisation remains a dominant theme. And caste is back, in a different version

The Gujarat difference

Mon, Oct 16, 2017

BJP successfully occupied the space of a regional party in the state. Congress strategy is still made in Delhi.

Tweedledee, tweedledum

Thu, Oct 05, 2017

Lines between Congress and BJP are regularly crossed in Gujarat. The BJP gets the advantage

Upper hand for upper castes in House

Mon, Mar 20, 2017

The return to power of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh has led to a resurgence in the representation of the upper castes. The new Assembly consists of 44.3% upper caste MLAs, 12 percentage points more than in 2012, and the highest share in UP Assemblies since 1980.

The rise of the floating voter

Tue, Mar 14, 2017

UP election confirms that caste-centric strategies of parties have been rendered less effective.

The rise of the floating voter

Mon, Mar 13, 2017

With 39.7 per cent of the votes and 75.7 per cent of the seats, the BJP scores the best performance recorded by any party in Uttar Pradesh since the Janata Party victory in 1977.

The lawmakers we need

Wed, Mar 08, 2017

Women outvote men in many states, but gender parity in Parliament and assemblies eludes India.

Backward, forward

Sat, Feb 11, 2017

UP campaign shows regional parties are courting cross-sectional appeal and the personality cult.

The bicycle and other stories

Thu, Jan 19, 2017

Party symbols are not just convenient signifiers. They serve as vehicles for political identity and style.

In it for the short haul

Fri, Dec 23, 2016

Few Uttar Pradesh MLAs get to serve more than one term. This has consequences.

UP assembly is more representative of various castes than it used to be

Mon, Nov 28, 2016

UP assembly shows politics has become more diverse in terms of caste, more homogeneous in class.

The good crisis

Wed, Oct 26, 2016

In the long run, the rift within SP may make space for a clearer leadership and direction in the party.

Samajwadi Party, family, continuity

Fri, Sep 30, 2016

The emergence of Akhilesh Yadav as a popular leader is an indicator of the same-old in the SP, not a break from the past.

Mayawati has two choices

Sat, Sep 10, 2016

In UP polls, BSP could play politics of Dalit-Muslim convergence. And it could ally with Congress

Caste in question

Sat, Jun 25, 2016

Old arithmetic is insufficient to explain UP politics. A new election demands newer ways of seeing

The representation gap

Fri, Jul 24, 2015

Decline in number of OBC MPs shows that the classic tropes of backward class politics — quotas and simple descriptive representation — no longer work.