Sandeep Moudgal
Sandeep Moudgal follows how political power is exercised through cabinet decisions, crisis management, campaign strategy and money, with a focus on state-level leadership and policy in India. He reports on politics for The Times of India, tracking the way institutions, parties and individual leaders use governance tools to shape outcomes on the ground.
Power, wealth and political accountability
Moudgal’s recent work includes close coverage of the declared assets of chief ministers, using election disclosures to frame questions about power, wealth and public accountability.
In his reporting on DK Shivakumar’s rise toward becoming India’s richest chief minister, he treats the Rs 1,413 crore figure not just as a headline number but as a way into broader issues of how personal fortunes intersect with public office. The focus on affidavits, rankings and comparative wealth signals an interest in the political economy of leadership, and in how citizens are asked to read financial data alongside promises of governance.
This approach distinguishes his politics coverage from routine event reporting, bringing questions of transparency and inequality into stories about individual careers.
Cabinet dynamics and institutional turf
Moudgal closely follows the internal workings of state cabinets, particularly when new structures threaten existing lines of authority. His coverage of the proposed Global Investors & NRI Affairs department highlights unease among ministers about overlapping mandates and turf concerns, mapping how an initiative pitched as investor-friendly policy triggers anxieties over jurisdiction and influence within the cabinet. He shows how economic development and diaspora outreach are mediated through bureaucratic design and political negotiation, rather than treating the announcement as a simple pro-business move. In separate work on “Soon UAV Tech, Cyber Security In Govt.” he extends this lens to the adoption of emerging technologies in government, connecting unmanned aerial vehicles and cyber security systems to questions of control, access and institutional preparedness. Taken together, these stories underscore his interest in state machinery as a contested space where policy innovation and power preservation meet.
Campaign strategy and political communication
Beyond formal governance, Moudgal reports on how parties try to shape opinion through digital campaigns and messaging.
His piece on actor-turned-politician Ramya, who heads a national-level social media team for the Congress, examines her refusal to rely on “guerrilla marketing” tactics to win polls and her focus on reviving the party’s image on digital platforms. The article gives weight to strategic choices about tone, content and authenticity, rather than reducing social media work to slogans or viral stunts. By foregrounding the operational side of campaign communication and the people tasked with executing it, he shows how electoral politics now depends on professionalised digital efforts that sit alongside more traditional organisation and outreach.
Crisis coordination and inter-state politics
Moudgal also covers how political leaders respond when environmental or infrastructural crises force cooperation beyond party and state lines.
In his reporting on a flood crisis along the Krishna basin, he follows a chief minister’s letters to counterparts in Maharashtra and Telangana, framing the correspondence as an effort to secure “co-ordination” between states facing heavy rains and rising waters. The story locates disaster response within inter-state politics, showing how appeals for better coordination, data sharing and joint management are filtered through existing relationships and rivalries.
By tying hydrological realities to administrative choices and political communication, he treats crises as tests of governance rather than isolated natural events. This attention to the political dimensions of coordination rounds out his broader focus on how institutions perform under stress.
Across these strands - wealth disclosures, cabinet design, technology adoption, digital campaigning and crisis management - Moudgal writes in a straightforward news format but consistently pushes beyond surface events. He looks at who gains or loses power when new departments are created, when assets are declared, when communication strategies shift, or when states must work together under pressure. That through-line makes his politics coverage particularly useful for understanding how formal decisions and informal strategies combine to shape the real distribution of authority in Indian public life.
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Alexander Britton
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Andi Yu
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Andrew Bolt
Andrew Bolt is a journalist, columnist and political commentator known for combative conservative analysis across print, online and television. He writes for the Herald Sun, where his national affairs columns and political blog are promoted as driving the news cycle, steering discussion and offering a strong perspective on leadership and cultural conflict. He hosts The Bolt Report on Sky News Australia four nights a week, extending the same opinion-led style to broadcast. Bolt’s core focus is party politics and leadership struggles, using senior figures in government and opposition to argue about values, national interests and ideological direction. He also writes on culture, history, identity and race, including contested narratives about Indigenous identification, and covers populist movements, border control, terrorism and free speech. His work is written as arguments rather than reportage, using direct language, stark framing and sustained campaigns on chosen issues.
Ben Smee
Ben Smee is a public interest reporter whose defining work examines how state power affects justice and vulnerable people. He is Guardian Australia’s Queensland correspondent and senior correspondent, covering Queensland politics, policing, youth crime, domestic and family violence, courts, elections and major policy debates. His investigations into children held in police watch houses exposed institutional failures and won a Walkley Award and Queensland Clarion honours. He also reports on police use of force against vulnerable First Nations people, police culture, victims failed by domestic violence systems, human rights, health policy, electric vehicles, surrogacy and infrastructure spending. His work has appeared across breaking news, features, live blogs and investigative podcasts. A former editor, head of news and political reporter, he combines sustained investigations with daily coverage, returning to institutions and laws to track whether promises of reform produce change.