If the cut in fuel prices is making you beam from ear to ear, take a pause and thank the poll gods. For, in India, the timing of oil price changes is inevitably linked to the timing of the polls.

Since last midnight, pump prices for auto fuels have been reduced by Rs 2.50 per litre. Eight BJP-ruled states made a matching Rs 2.50 per litre cut in the value added tax they levy on these fuels. Auto fuel prices in these states are expected to go down by Rs 5 per litre.

Three BJP-ruled states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — are scheduled to go to the polls later this year.

Poll-bound Rajasthan, a BJP-run state, had already pared its rate in September.

In May this year, the Karnataka Assembly polls blessed us with a freeze on oil prices, though they went up a day after the polls got over. The same happened when Gujarat went to polls in December 2017.

We help you make a sense of the oily ride and track how the much the government has giveth and how much it has taketh away.