Uttar Pradesh local elections 2015: money, muscle and manipulation in a village. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020) - Kumar, Satendra
ABSTRACT: This article attempts to demonstrate the potentiality of electoral politics and suggests that an ethnographic exploration of the ways in which different caste groups engage with elections is useful for understanding the violent and manipulative side of electoral processes in rural western Uttar Pradesh. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in village, this article shows the role of alcohol, money and manipulative strategies in local elections. Elections are also closely linked with regional and wider politics. Regional and local histories of caste and factional conflict and intra-and inter-party competition are both causes and effects of electoral violence and manipulations.