About the Website
This website has been created for the above project and will carry short field reports from researchers who are currently conducting ethnographic research into the meaning that elections hold for the electorate. Shifting the emphasis away from 'who will win', this study of elections will investigate the reasons for why people vote at all, what their motivations are, how the election campaign is experienced by ordinary voters and what their experience of casting their vote on election day is like. We hope to update these posts frequently during the period of the elections.
Project Specifics
This project is entitled 'Panchayat and Vidhan Sabha elections 2012-2015' with Dr Mukulika Banerjee of the London School of Economics and Political Science as its Principal Investigator and is a part of a larger study launched by the European Research Network Programme: "Explaining Electoral Change in Rural and Urban India". It is funded by the Indian-European Research Networking Programme ANR-DFG-ESRC-ICSSR-NOW Joint Funding Scheme, Reference Number: 465-11-031.
Project Site
This study currently being conducted during the State level Vidhan Sabha elections in the states of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, is part of a larger three-year project to investigate these questions. The four project sites identified for this year's project are: 1. Kelabari, Dalli Rajhara, Chattisgarh, 2. Sirohi, Abu Road, Rajasthan, 3. Raghubir Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Delhi and 4. Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
Project Execution
Governance Now, a print and web publication on public policy, is executing this project study under the supervision of Dr Banerjee. Two senior journalists of Governance Now will be observing the elections for one month by living in the vicinity of the project sites. They have been on the ground since November 14.
Researchers
A senior journalist with more than two decades of experience working in some of the biggest media houses, he is stationed at Kelabari, Dalli Rajhara, Chattisgarh.
Brajesh Kumar: A special correspondent with Governance Now, Brajesh is winner of this year's Press Council of India's National Award for Rural Reporting for his reporting from Revdakalan, Abu Road, Rajasthan. He will revisit the place for this project.
Jasleen Kaur: A principal correspondent with Governance Now, Jasleen has covered Delhi extensively in her career. She will track Raghubir Nagar, part of the Rajouri Garden constituency of Delhi.
Srishti Pandey: A correspondent with Governance Now, Srishti will cover Samardha, close to Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal.
Earlier Project Sites
As part of this project last year, Governance Now journalists covered two constituencies in Gujarat. Click here to read their reports.
ABOUT SAMARDHA
WHAT: Samardha village, part of Huzur constituency in Bhopal, has three polling booths: numbers 204 (1,245 voters), 205 (970 voters) and 206 (1,554 voters). The three booths cover Samardha village and four colonies: Krishnapuram, Radhapuram, Liberty and Shubhalay. Huzur was declared a separate constituency in the last assembly elections after delimitation in 2007.
Where: Located around 20 km from the state capital, Samardha lies alongside NH-12, called Hoshangabad Road by locals. The village is dominated by people of ‘backward’ category, including 35% OBCs (Ghoshi, Patidar and Rai), 30% SCs (mostly Ahirwar) and 20% STs (Darohi, Uikey and Dhurve). People from ‘general category’ constitute 10% of the population and the remaining 5% are Muslims.
The four colonies also have almost similar occupancy.
Over 80% inhabitants in the area are migrants employed in Mandideep, an industrial hub located some 2 km from the village. The remaining population – including the Ghoshis, Patidars and Ahirwars – is rich, with people owning vast expanses of farming land on which they cultivate wheat, rice, chana and soya bean.
Who: Due to fierce competition for party ticket within BJP and Congress, both parties have pushed the final announcement of candidate lists to be made only on the last day of filing nominations: November 8.
The sitting MLA is Jeetendra Daga of the BJP and the area has been a stronghold of the ruling party even before delimitation.