There is a lot that happens in the background to make sure that every Indian election - like the just concluded Bihar assembly election - is conducted fairly, freely and peacefully. Smarak Swain, who was on election duty in Bihar reports on the challenges faced by the Election Commission of India and how it is overcoming them effectively.

The Election Commission of India is introducing The National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPA) with a view to eliminating duplication and erroneous deletions in electoral rolls across the country. Chinmayi Shalya reports on the initial plans.

As Delhi readies for the fiercely contested Assembly elections, here are a few details beyond the din of the campaigns that we bet you didn’t know! S Venkatraman captures them in an easy-to-grasp visual.

In the 2014 elections, the BJP won 66 out of 131 seats reserved for SC/ST candidates, which is the highest for any single party since 1991. Prabhu Mallikarjunan looks at the statistics and tries to decipher what this says for voting behaviour in these constituencies.

While the entire country appeared unimpressed by the Aam Aadmi Party and its promises, Punjab not only sent four of its candidates to the Lok Sabha, but as recent data shows, also overcame the rural-urban divide in its mandate for the party. Srinivasan Ramani explores why.

How strong was the Modi wave? Did recent state elections impact voter choice in parliamentary elections? Did better performing MPs necessarily augur well for their parties in the respective constituencies? A statistical analysis by Srinivasan Ramani finds interesting linkages between these and the UPA drubbing.

Did corruption as an issue only create noise, or did it really impact voter choice in the 16th Lok Sabha elections? Prabhu Mallikarjunan finds that the answer may not be very straighforward or simple.

The results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections apparently point to an abysmal failure of new politics as championed by the Aam Aadmi Party, but a deeper look by Himanshu Upadhyaya suggests all may not be over just as yet.

The overwhelming mandate won by the BJP under Narendra Modi has led to continuing upward rally in the markets, but can it also inspire similar cheer in the social space? Shankar Jaganathan remains optimistic.

Combining provisional voter turnout data and the perceptions of MP performance based on the Daksh-ADR survey, Srinivasan Ramani attempts to make reasonable assessments about what could be behind high turnouts in this Lok Sabha elections.

Any election campaign and process needs money, and as long as the exercise of money power is well-regulated, it can never thwart the power of the people, feels P V Rajeev.

Days before the much-hyped showdown between Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi, Prabhu Mallikarjunan pays a visit to the holy city to know more about the loyalties and concerns of people on the ground.