This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Jayashree Arunachalam and Prateek Goyal are joined by journalist Faye D’Souza.

On the polls in Maharashtra, Faye says there is “a lot of goodwill” for the Thackerays. “Eknath Shinde does not enjoy that goodwill because of what was done to the Thackerays.” She adds that there was confusion about election symbols because of the split within the NCP and the Shiv Sena. “A lot of voters did not know the difference between their symbols.”

The panel then discusses the elections in Delhi and the alleged Swati Maliwal assault case. Raman breaks down the arithmetic of Delhi polls. “In 2019, the BJP’s margin of victory was 25 percent and above.” Abhinandan says that the coming together of the AAP and the Congress is “statistically not enough” to defeat the BJP in the national capital.

On the Porsche car crash incident in Pune, Jayashree says the story is getting traction because it “appeals very much to India’s upper middle class sensibilities”. Talking about the bail granted to the accused, she adds that all said and done, “we should not lose sight of the fact that any juvenile should get bail”.

This and a whole lot more. Tune in!

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Timecodes

00: 00:00 - Introduction

00:07:32 - Headlines

00: 13:22 - Elections in Maharashtra

00:24:38 - Elections in Delhi, Swati Maliwal case

00:43:20 - Porsche car crash in Pune

01:05:50 - Faye’s recommendation

01:20:17 - Letters

01:39:45 - Panel recommendations

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Check out our previous Hafta recommendations.

Produced and recorded by Aryan Mahtta, edited by Hassan Bilal.

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