Bhakto's Perspectives

How I predicted a BJP win in Uttar Pradesh amid growing chorus for Samajwadi Party "Election reporting is a craft, no magic" is my response to all those who are asking me how did I aptly predict both the Uttarakhand and UP elections, in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite a wide-ranging perception of a Samajwadi Party rebound in the latter State. Election reporting is not about being obsessed with what I think or my morally upright friends and mentors think. It is about determining what people think. Without attaching moral standards to the respondents, as that would dissuade them from revealing their choice. The multi-dimensional Hindutva games and the mass media's complicity in giving greater circulation to the BJP's messages, communal as they are often, were factors. There were other factors. A quick look.  1. In politics, two and two is not four. The whole notion about the SP's resounding comeback was the outcome of serial defections from the BJP/NDA...

Why Adityanath may secure a second term in UP  Reporting from Varanasi, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Mughalsarai. A narrow, earthen track snails through the barren fields of Bharuhana, a village deep inside Mirzapur, roughly 60 kilometres north-west of the temple town of Varanasi. Emaciated cattle tied to tree-trunks in the vicinity of scattered thatch-houses, some of which are disintegrating, betray the penury of its inhabitants. The red flags of the Samajwadi Party warrant your attention. They are everywhere. Atop the huts. Fixed to the handlebar of bicycles. At the enclosure surrounding the hand-pump. Bittu Yadav, a nonchalant twelve-year-old, says he is voting for Akhilesh bhaiya , evoking a laughter among older men. Undeterred, he recounts his ordeal: “It is two years of no school. There are online classes, but few have smart phones.” His cousin Chetan, who is old enough to vote, shares his yearning for change. He says jobs are missing and price-rise is hitting people har...