Delhi, India - Political Researcher - Writer - Policy Analyst
Abhishek Sharma
I am interested in elections, politics, democracy, technology, digital democracy, and digital politics - especially how data, platforms, campaigns, and institutions now shape public life in India.
Office of Abhishek Dutt
Lokniti-CSDS
The Hindu
The Wire
Indian Express
Scroll
16+Articles, reports, and papers
60k+Parliamentary questions analysed
50k+Voter records studied
100+RTIs and inputs filed
01 - Work Archive
Publications
& Research
The centre of the portfolio is the work itself: published articles, policy-facing research, national reports, and writing that turns political data into arguments a wider public can use.
Gaps in Regulating Digital Campaigns
Reframing the Language Question
From Questions to Action: Why Parliament Must Lead on Youth Employment
What 60,000 Questions in Parliament Reveal About Youth Employment in India
Advertisements, Trends, and Targeting Tactics: Digital Campaign Strategies in the 2024 Lok Sabha Election
The Public Record: Parliament on Youth Employment
Women Voters Played a Key Role in Maharashtra Outcome. What Issues Did They Prioritise?
Joy, Fear and Anger: The BJP and INC's Digital Playbook
Democratic Engagement with a Digital Plug-In
Do People Really Like Narendra Modi? Here's What the Numbers Say
Duality: Understanding Indian Voter Behaviour
For Voters, Economic and Social Justice Mattered More Than Identity Politics
Unveiling the Veil: Expenditure Disparities in India's Electoral System
Architects of Hate: Who is Fuelling Discord in India's Digital Elections?
Analysing Digital Ad Campaigns During the Silence Period of Lok Sabha Phase 1
Analysis of the Ad Campaign of the BJP and Congress During the Lok Sabha Elections
Third-Party Players in India: The Emerging Menace in Electoral Campaigns
No matching work found.
35k+Tracked LinkedIn impressions
109+Reactions on latest Hindu piece
16k+Impressions on hiring/research call
4National media outlets
"Someone shared your article today in The Hindu on data governance. I read it - it is very well written and very insightful."
Reader message - Data governance piece"Congratulations on penning an incisive piece on the need for data standardisation in today's edition of The Hindu."
Reader message - The Hindu"I recently came across your writings on election and democracy, and I felt encouraged to reach out. This brings out really important points."
IIT Kharagpur reader - Electoral writing
Report launchConstitution Club
LinkedIn responseThe Hindu
Launch momentCSDS
Byline archiveEditorial
Report releaseCSDS
02 - Research Exposure
Collaborators
& Mentors
This section is designed to signal more than affiliation. It shows the research rooms, political offices, scholars, journalists, public policy teams, and field-facing projects that shaped the way Abhishek works.
Abhishek Dutt
AICC Secretary in Karnataka.
Current office
Prof. Sanjay Kumar
Director, Lokniti-CSDS and one of India's leading psephologists. Research supervision and co-authorship on digital democracy and electoral communication.
CSDS - Research mentor
Prof. Aditi Singh
Researcher at CSDS and PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore. Supervisor of the CSDS digital election project.
CSDS - Project supervisor
Prof. Christophe Jaffrelot
Senior Research Fellow, CERI-Sciences Po; Professor, King's College London. Co-author on public opinion and Indian politics for The Wire.
Co-author - The Wire
Ruchi Gupta
Executive Director, Future of India Foundation. Public policy leader working on democratic governance, institutional reform, political strategy, and youth opportunity.
FoIF - Co-author
VG
Vandita Gupta
Policy researcher and alumna of the University of Edinburgh. Co-author on youth employment, parliamentary questions, and digital election writing.
Co-author - FoIF and The Hindu
DD
Deshdeep Dhankhar
PhD scholar at the University of California, USA. Part of the wider academic network around political science, research training, and comparative politics.
Academic network - UC
Office of Abhishek Dutt
Current role leading a team of researchers and interns, managing weekly targets, stakeholder consultations, recruitment, research proposals, election briefs, speech inputs, RTIs, and campaign strategy documents.
Current role
Research leadership
Political intelligence
Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Digital election studies during the 2024 Lok Sabha election under Prof. Sanjay Kumar. The work culminated in a national report on digital political communication and multiple public-facing findings in The Hindu.
Digital campaigns
Survey research
Election data
Future of India Foundation
Co-led the Parliamentary Research Program, coordinated a large cohort of interns, and contributed to a report on youth employment based on 60,000+ parliamentary questions.
Youth employment
Parliament
Policy institute engagement
University of Melbourne x University of Delhi
Selected as one of nine students from a pool of 600+ for the Universitas 21 exchange program focused on security, development, and comparative academic collaboration.
1 of 9
600+ pool
Security and development
The Hindu, The Wire, Indian Express, Scroll
Editorial and analytical writing across digital democracy, voter behaviour, political advertising, campaign finance, language policy, and parliamentary attention to youth employment.
Editorial writing
Public scholarship
Data storytelling
May 2026-nowHead of Research, Office of Abhishek Dutt
Team leadership, proposal pipeline, consultations, and political research systems.
Mar 2024-Jul 2025Researcher, CSDS
Digital election studies and national report on the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign.
Feb-May 2025Research Associate, FoIF
Parliamentary questions, youth employment, and policy intern coordination.
2023Intern, IISPPR
Early public policy research training and exposure to policy writing workflows.
03 - Credentials
Education &
Recognition
The credentials section keeps the formal record compact: education, exchange selection, parliamentary training, and national science recognition before the political research career accelerated.
Academic Formation
2023-25
M.A. in Political ScienceDepartment of Political Science, University of Delhi
2025
Universitas 21 Exchange ProgramUniversity of Melbourne x University of Delhi. Selected as 1 of 9 from 600+ students.
2023
Basic Certificate in Parliamentary QuestionsInstitute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies
2017-20
Bachelor of ArtsUniversity of Delhi
Awards and Milestones
2026
Head of ResearchOffice of Abhishek Dutt, National Secretary, AICC and Co-Incharge, Karnataka
2025
Lead contribution to CSDS digital politics reportReport launched at the Constitution Club of India
2024
Lead editorial in The HinduCo-authored with Prof. Sanjay Kumar on digital democracy
2018
National Child Scientist25th National Children's Science Congress, NCSTC, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India
2015-16
National Children's Science Congress and MHRD recognitionCertificates of appreciation from national-level science and education bodies
04 - Research Pipeline
Research
Pipeline
The pipeline is where the portfolio stops being only a record of past work. It signals the intellectual agenda: state elections, platform politics, political timing, voter response, and municipal governance data.
Open to research collaborations, data partnerships, field support, writing commissions, fellowships, and institutional homes for these projects.
Project 01
Social Media and News Discourse at State Election Level
A candidate- and constituency-level study of social media activity during state and assembly elections, mapped against news narratives to understand how political stories travel, mutate, and diverge across constituencies.
In development
State elections
Platform analysis
Project 02
The Electoral Clock: BJP's Political Timing Strategy, 2014-2029
A structured framework mapping major political decisions against election timelines. The working hypothesis is that high-appeal, low-risk decisions cluster close to elections while controversial moves are made earlier to allow recovery.
Framework design
Political timing
Predictive lens
Project 03
Electoral Timing and Voter Response
A second layer to the Electoral Clock project, connecting voter behaviour data, survey evidence, and socioeconomic indicators to test whether timing strategies shape outcomes across different regions and contexts.
Early stage
Survey evidence
Voter behaviour
Project 04
MCD Ward Governance Scorecard
A data-driven audit of Delhi municipal wards using public datasets, RTIs, and a pilot across 10-15 wards. The work begins with a data gap analysis that shapes the RTI strategy and scorecard design.
In development
Delhi governance
RTI strategy
05 - Key Moments
Key
Moments
This is where report release photographs, screenshots of praise, byline images, university exchange pictures, and high-engagement LinkedIn posts can live without breaking the editorial seriousness of the site.
Constitution Club of India - Aug 2025
CSDS report release on digital campaign strategies
A horizontal highlight from the launch, keeping the full panel and the report title visible.
University of Melbourne x University of Delhi
Universitas 21 exchange cohort
Selected as one of nine students from a pool of 600+ for cross-continental academic collaboration.
The Hindu
Editorial bylines and reader response
Reader messages, article screenshots, and responses to writing on data, elections, and democracy.
Constitution Club of India
Holding the first major report
A personal marker from the CSDS digital political communication report release.
CSDS report launch
With Prof. Aditi Singh
A project-supervision and launch moment from the CSDS digital election study.
The Hindu
Byline with Prof. Sanjay Kumar
A visible trace of the editorial work emerging from the Lokniti-CSDS research period.
06 - Contact
Let's talk politics.
Available for research collaborations, policy consulting, writing commissions, fellowships, media queries, and academic opportunities.