ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Vikas TripathiSubscribe to Vikas Tripathi

Indigenising Election Studies in India

Electoral Dynamism of Indian Politics: Deciphering the Enigma by Bidyut Chakrabarty and Rajendra K Pandey, SAGE Publishing India, 2021; pp 348, `1,395.

Religious Polarisation Outweighs Ethnic Mobilisation

The Assam assembly elections continued the trend towards deepening of religious polarisation in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance strategy helped in retaining its hold over the ethnic base that had shifted to the party in 2016.

Parliament amidst Pandemic

A one-party dominant Parliament seldom witnesses effective opposition. A government with an absolute majority attempts to centralise powers in times of crisis leading to marginalisation of the opposition and legislature. A fragmented multiparty opposition blunts the impact of what could otherwise be brought to the parliamentary system in terms of legislation, accountability, oversight and scrutiny. What is the role of the legislature in the times of exigencies like a pandemic vis-à-vis a government? Amidst the impasse over the working of Parliament with abrupt disruptions and absence of reconciliatory avenues, how is the opposition–government relationship defined?

 

After Gogoi

With the passing away of Tarun Gogoi and assembly elections due in April 2021, the Congress party faces three formidable challenges: resolving leadership crisis and organisational revamping, forging a social coalition and ensuring a consensus over a new ideological middle ground among diverse political parties and factions in the state to challenge the dominance of the Bharatiya Janata Party. These three challenges are deeply intertwined and primarily owe to religion overpowering the ethnic and linguistic barriers of political mobilisation in the state.

Assam 2019: NDA Deepens Its Dominance

The 2019 elections, held against the backdrop of massive protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, were seen as a litmus test for the Bharatiya Janata Party in terms of retaining its base among the state’s indigenous communities that were bitterly opposed to the bill. The party’s success in neutralising opposition to the controversial bill amongst non-Muslims and diverting attention towards the increase in the percentage of Muslim population, marked a continuation of the trend witnessed in the 2016 assembly elections, when it managed to patch up a “rainbow coalition” with regionalist groups raising the issue of protection of land and identity from “illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants.”

Understanding the Political Shift in Assam

Assam was a Congress stronghold in the post-Congress era. However, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections marked a signifi cant political shift with the Bharatiya Janata Party making significant inroads. The trend continued with the recent elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council and urban local bodies. This article explores the changing political dynamics of the state which assume added significance because elections to the state assembly are slated for early 2016.

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