There are many things that are taken as a given in the coverage we get of Indian elections. We hear percentage figures about certain communities, cliches like ‘Muslims vote in a block’, or various opinion polls that seem to offer very different predictions for what is likely to happen.

Today, on a video edition of The Election Fix, we speak to data journalist Rukmini S to get a cheatsheet of all the cliches about Indian polls, and whether we should believe them or take with a grain (or a heap) of salt. Rukmini writes the How India Votes series on Scroll.in, where she also breaks down many of these questions like whether the BJP has a votebank and how the news media helps the saffron party.

Please tell us what you think of The Election Fix by emailing me at rohan@scroll.in. You can read previous issues of the Election Fix here and if you haven’t already signed up, subscribe here to get the Election Fix in your inbox.