Assembly elections

After a long period of two years, the process of delimiting the assembly and parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir has finally come to an end. The union government went on with the process of delimitation with unflinching focus, disregarding the immense opposition to this exercise by most political parties on the ground. It is essential to enumerate the basic aspects of this delimitation, and analyse how these can have profound political consequences in the union territory of J&K.

JP to BJP: Bihar After Lalu and Nitish by Santosh Singh, New Delhi: Sage Publications and Vitasta, 2021; pp xxiii + 302, `595.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “legal exceptionalism” of election time must be examined to see the constraints that the pandemic places on the Election Commission of India, as well as the “special” responsibilities that it must discharge to ensure that procedural certainties are commensurate with a public health emergency. This article argues that the focus on the pandemic must not take our attention away from the larger concerns around the conduct of the commission and its implications for trust in the institution and electoral integrity.

The success of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jharkhand in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was enabled by the popularity of Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate, people’s perception of the BJP being the saviour of the nation, and a sense of satisfaction with the performance of its government at the centre. However, most of these factors will not be able to mobilise the voters in favour of the party in the forthcoming assembly elections.

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