(This two-part explainer is drawn from a recent study undertaken by the InfoSphere team at the Centre for New Economics Studies, OP Jindal Global University. For details on the Access Inequality Index (AEI) report, please see here.)
With the national elections less than a year away, key state assembly polls have stirred a political storm across regional and national parties contesting for power across five states: Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
From the incumbent national party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), making promises of setting up an 'Entrepreneurial Northeast’ scheme to providing financial support to Northeastern MSMEs, to the Indian National Congress's (INC's) Gehlot government in Rajasthan announcing 1 lakh jobs to curb unemployment, to the Prime Minister’s announcement of extending the free ration scheme of PMGKAY for another five years, populist announcements made by parties on welfare grounds for electoral reasons remain in full swing.
As argued by one of the authors more recently, State Assembly Elections, from West Bengal, UP, Kerala to Karnataka in recent year(s) saw how the electoral appeal of religious polarisation had withdrawn to give way to the successful implementation (or pitch of) welfare schemes aimed that changing/affecting the lives of the poor and those living at the margins amidst greater economic insecurity surfacing from rising unemployment, inflation, and household debt (in a post-covid landscape).
Given how addressing core economic issues have remained the key focus of party manifestos, understanding the ground economic realities of the five states considering the ongoing assembly elections deserves much attention.