There has been much talk of the politics behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's 5 Jul Cabinet reshuffle. It hasn't escaped anyone's attention that several new appointees came from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, both states in which the BJP has big stakes and that have elections due in 2017. But how important is regional representation in the appointment of ministers? …
Tag: Political parties
Rush to judgement
The Association of Democratic Reforms has analysed 280 of 469 Lok Sabha candidates announced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) and discovered that: https://twitter.com/ndtvvideos/status/447209053744549888 The data do not seem to be up as yet on the ADR website, so here is quick breakdown by party using the numbers quoted …
Should opinion polls be banned?
Despite my critique of their use of communal violence data, the India Today Group graciously invited me to participate in a panel discussion on opinion polling at the India Today Conclave 2014 on Saturday, Mar 8. I made the following points: Parliamentary seat projections should be treated with skepticism because there is no simple relationship between …
Political parties’ Facebook activity
In response to my post on Political parties' Facebook "likes", Pragya Tiwari correctly pointed out that an additional flaw in that measure is the likelihood that parties and politicians purchase "likes", and that people "talking about this" might be a less manipulable figure. So here is some data (an evening's snapshot on Mar 1): https://twitter.com/dubeyamitabh/status/439781308999282689 …
Chunauti 