The Delhi voter who quit journalism

If Pranita Kulkarni had received her voter identification card in 2014, she would have voted for the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party. Ten years later, she is relieved that she did not have the required documents at the time to apply for the card. She explained that today, her political views have shifted. “Right now, it’s just the question of choosing the lesser evil,” she said.

A decade ago, she explained, there were two major developments that led her to believe that the country needed to vote out the ruling United Progressive Alliance at the centre. The first was the 2012 rape and murder of a young physiotherapist student in Delhi, in what came to be known as the Nirbhaya case, and the massive street protests that followed, for women’s safety. The second was the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare. Kulkarni’s home is in Pune, and Hazare is from the neighbouring district of Ahmednagar. “Since Hazare was a local influential person, I probably paid more attention to it,” said Kulkarni.

Around the same time, major corruption scams had also come to light in Maharashtra, such as the Adarsh housing society scam and the Lavasa land scam. “With these things happening, I was at...

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