State elections come into focus

The Electoral Commission confirmed this week that five state elections will take place before the end of 2018. As ever, these will have an important bearing on economic policy at the local level, and will also go some way to determining whether the ruling BJP will be able to gain control of the upper house of parliament, which on several occasions has delayed or blocked the passage of economic reform. But there is added interest in upcoming votes, as they will viewed by markets as bellwethers of the government’s popularity ahead of the general election in 2019.