My aged mother, living in one of the six states that went to the Assembly polls, was unsure whether she would cast her ballot this time because of poor health. Yet members of a certain party arranged her commute to the polling booth, where she was told she could not vote because she had misplaced her Aadhaar card. Strangely, she was not disappointed. In her words, “It doesn’t matter who comes to power. They are all the same.” Still, she and my late father had always shown allegiance to the Congress party and voted for the “hand”, regardless of the candidate. Their loyalty was less about ideology and more about history and habit.

For many people like me, national politics is not central to everyday life. It appears in fragments - television debates, newspaper headlines or snippets overheard in conversation. To those deeply invested in politics, this may seem like indifference towards........

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