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Election Politics and Voting Behaviour of BPL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paper Id :
16911 Submission Date :
2022-11-06 Acceptance Date :
2022-11-21 Publication Date :
2022-11-25
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Abstract |
The study focuses on BPL's voting habits and electoral politics. Election voting has significant societal ramifications, but because of the dominance of mentalistic approaches in electoral studies, this conduct has received less attention from researchers trained in behavioural analysis. Electoral conduct includes voting behaviour. Political scientists have long sought to understand how and why choices are made by public officials, as well as by the people. The aim of the study is to determine the role of BPL in electoral politics and to find out the impact of education qualification on their voting behaviour.For the gathering of primary and secondary data, the approach used in this study is a random sampling method. Individual interviews with Below Poverty Line peoples were conducted, as well as a field survey using organized schedules and questions. Total 200 sample size is chosen for the study. Secondary data included pertinent books, journals, and other published materials in the subject area, as well as national and regional newspapers and periodicals in English and Hindi. Study concluded that the nature of politics in India means that poverty alleviation is not just an economic imperative but a political necessity for elected politicians. To achieve this, the state needs to mediate between various institutions, ensure fair play through the efficient regulation of markets, and implement transfer and taxation policies to redistribute resources from rich to poor.
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Keywords | Voting Behavior, Determinants, BPL, Election Politics, Constituency. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Introduction |
Voting is a critical component of democracy, as it represents the ‘will’ of the people. The phrase "vote" is also used frequently in our daily lives during dialogues, arguments, or debates. The phrase vote literally refers to voters' "will" to support or oppose a decision, policy, philosophy, candidate, party, or other issue. In other words, voting is a function of eligible citizens that allows them to elect their rulers or delegates. The Indian constitution establishes parliamentary democracy, which is supported by a legally established mechanism for governing the country. Voting is a fundamental right of the people in this system of government, and the party with the most votes is officially elected to power at regular intervals (such every five or six years). Article 326 of the Constitution guarantees the right to vote to all citizens above the age of eighteen. The voting behaviour and its importance is greatly facilitated by the "will" of the people and the grounds for its creation. Voting and voting behaviour, as well as its determinants, have become a fascinating topic for scholars to investigate. This voting behaviour is the people's political conduct, and it directly impacts politics, as well as politics influencing voting behaviour (Bhuyan, 2010).
Voting behaviour, or voting habits, refers to a person's voting habits and the factors that influence their decision to support a certain political party, philosophy, or other issue. Different experts have come up with different definitions of how people actually vote. Researchers in the topic of voting behaviour look at how and why people cast their ballots during public elections. A voter's voting behaviour may be defined as the act of voting in a way that expresses the voter's views on numerous topics, concerns about society and the nation, as well as their choices, options, beliefs, worries, agreements, and programmes.
Elections have always been a major celebration for all the parties and the people, but this celebration is tarnished when the colours of communalism, caste, hatred, intolerance, regionalism, money, and muscular power, among other things, are added to it. During elections, political parties do their hardest to garner the support of the people in order to gain power. People's voting habits are something they're working to improve. Influencing voters' choices include issues such as law and order; corruption; public policy; the economy; inflation; and other government-enacted policies.
Political parties serve as the primary means by which citizens elect their representatives to serve in the legislative branch of government. Because of the many facets of politics, from institutions to elections, various academics approach the study of elections in a variety of ways. Surveys have been the most popular method of examining the factors that influence voters' choices at the polls. An important part of researching democracy is examining elections. Elections are governed by people casting their votes in favour of a candidate who may be a member of a political party or may run for office without the backing of a political party. They are known as independent candidates. The expectation is that when there are several candidates running for an office, voters would only vote for one of them. There are a number of things that influence whether or not people vote for or against a certain candidate in a general election. Caste, class, tribe, gender, religion, language, and ethnicity are only a few of the many determinants of voting behaviour.
In the modern era of democratic politics, one of the most widely used phrases is "voting." Democratic theory and practice have grown in popularity to the point that this phrase has become a household term. Each adult citizen in democratic systems, of which there are many and expanding, utilizes "voting" to voice his acceptance or disapproval of g0overnment acts, various party laws and programming, and the qualities of candidates contending for the position of people's representatives. Voting, in a narrow sense, refers to the process of electing representatives by casting ballots in elections. Voting is a function that is extremely important to voters, candidates, and political researchers. Voting behaviour study is becoming increasingly important in contemporary political theory and research.
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Objective of study | 1. To determining the role of BPL in electoral politics.
2. To identify the effects of political parties in influencing voting behaviour of BPL.
3. To find out the impact of education qualification on their voting behaviour.
4. To identify the Level of Political Understanding. |
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Review of Literature | Downs (1957) looked at how voters react to regional heterogeneity in electoral
dynamics in the research. The researcher wanted to know if variations in
average turnout in a particular election have an impact on voters' choice to
vote. The problem encounter was that each election was often a simultaneous
move game for voters, and the topics that voters examine vary substantially
from one election to the next. For every election, there was minimal exogenous
variation to influence voter behaviour, and the comparisons between elections
are of little use. Voters' opinions about the competitive election environment
should be perturbed at random and compared. Despite the fact that this is
impossible in actuality, the identification framework utilizes approximate this
experiment. Rossi,
(1959)examined that the prominence of mentalist
notions in voting research hasn't silenced dissenters. "Voters who
strongly connect with the Republican party exhibit a significant predisposition
to vote for that party," according to mentalist interpretations of voting
behaviour. Skinner, (1972)stated that a researcher's ability to assess genuine
"voting behaviour" in democratic elections is limited by the fact
that official votes are always cast in secret. It's not enough for electoral
analysts to depend on poll respondents' statements about their voting habits
and how they're influenced by their environment. Such reports may be impacted
by factors other than the voting behaviour they pretend to reflect, especially
in the interview situation, where empirical survey data is frequently obtained.
Interviewers for surveys are taught to be as inconspicuous as possible when
listening to the verbal reports of participants. Even though the interviewer
has control over the verbal replies of survey participants, they are not
particularly reinforced in one direction or another, nor are they paid for
participating in the survey (by monetary compensation). Voters' verbal
responses can be believed to correctly reflect their actual voting behaviour
and the numerous contextual elements that influence it. Wahlke
(1979) focused on political science in general on
mental factors, whether dependent or independent, was questioned in order to
support this position. "Obedience to authority" studies were the best
example of correlations between overt conduct and underlying attitudes being
essentially nonexistent in psychological trials in which the overt behaviour
could be examined without the underlying attitudes. Noelle
Neumann, (1984)said that the effects of
voting are handed down by individuals within a voter's social circle who are
close enough to encourage or penalize voting behaviour without waiting around
for long periods of time (like family, friends, peers, co-workers,
campaign workers, neighbors, etc.). Reinforcing factors may come from more
distant sources, such as friends and family. One might consider of dominating
"climates" or fads of popular opinion, which are rendered relevant to
the individual voter by the mass media. In certain conditions, it is possible
to predict the likelihood of (certain definable) mass popular support or
rejection of a given policy. Lamal &
Greenspoon, (1992)the degree
of measurement utilized in this study is a second warning comment.
Environmental factors are only relevant inasmuch as they are reflected in
voters' verbal testimony, and voting decisions are often assessed from the
standpoint of the individual voter. Economic crises, wars, revolutions, and
other macro-level societal changes might all be easily ignored in such a study.
Ideally, voting behaviour analysis would adopt a micro- and macro-level
approach to the voter, capturing both micro- and macro-contingencies and
investigating functionally connected behaviours at the individual and
population levels. The metacontingencies have been studied previously, and some
insights have been gained. Visser, (1994)examined that the ordinary people are assumed to be
rational in their political choices, according to normative principles that
have dominated voting studies for many years. The earliest psychological
examinations of election behaviour, on the other hand, swiftly dispelled this
positive image, replacing it with a semi-rational approach to voting based on a
set of mental concepts that remained more or less consistent across time
(political beliefs, attitudes, values, so on.) However, despite the fact that
political scientists differ on the exact type and quantity of these mental
dispositions, semi-rational models have persisted to the present day despite
their widespread use. Visser, M. (1996)Voting for a
political party in an election has tremendous societal repercussions, but it
has received little attention from a behaviour analytical perspective due to
the strong mentalistic effects that have been seen in electoral studies. A
behavioural study of voting is presented in this paper, and the results of the
analysis are applied to data from a Dutch election poll to evaluate a derived
behavioural model. It has been established that such an examination would be
both philosophically and practically beneficial to the parties involved. Blais (2000)The
data is varied as to whether or not voters are actually driven purely by
instrumental concerns, but it is evident that the basic models above cannot
help us forecast the outcome of any given election. To address this, some
theories imply that voting is free, while others claim that voting has a
positive effect on the individual's self-worth. The evident physical expense of
voting must be offset in both circumstances by some non-instrumental advantage. Sharma, K. (2012)The purpose of the research was to investigate the
utility of political advertising in the context of India. The research looked
on people's perceptions of the importance of political advertising in
influencing voting behaviour in terms of information gathering and appraisal,
voting attitudes, and voting decisions. Furthermore, it was anticipated that
one's level of participation with voting decisions influences one's judgments
of the importance of political advertising. The study has found that very
little evidence to support the relevance of employing political advertising at
the scale that various political parties in India were done. Key, J. V. (2013) considered the evidence for the action of operant conditioning
principles was discovered in a compact model of voting behaviour that included
the voter's parents and spouse as major components, which was the study's main
discovery. While the reinforcers, punishers, and models provided by proximal
individuals appear to have a considerable impact on consistency of voting
behaviour, it appears that the direction of voting behaviour is significantly
influenced by the voting choices of the proximal individuals around the voter.
There are two limitations to this finding, however.First and foremost, because
survey research lacks the controlled character of experimental investigations,
causal correlations between variables must be evaluated with care in the
absence of experimental evidence. In spite of the fact that the relatively
simple behavioural model used in this paper could account for two out of every
three votes, future refinements should aim to improve on this figure by
incorporating more aspects into the behaviour analysis, such as the influence
of people close to the voter (such as family and friends), the role of
campaigns and the media in influencing voting behaviour, and the role of
electoral actual issues. It may be feasible to explain practically all of the
variety in voting choices by closely monitoring the voting behaviour of the
whole reinforcing verbal community as well as relevant antecedent factors. Hazarak, B. (2015)The term
"voting" is one of the most often used in today's democratic era. Democracy
has become a general term because to its growing popularity in both theory and practice.
Everyone in a democratic society uses the term "voting" to express
their views on government choices, policies, and programming from various
political parties as well as the qualifications of candidates running for
public office in constantly developing democratic systems.The study of the
elements influencing electoral behaviour is an extremely significant issue of
empirical research that should be recognized. Man is a reasonable creature when
it comes to his intellectual behaviour; nevertheless, when it comes to his
economic and political behaviour, he is not nearly so logical. One of the most
startling research results of an empirical analysis examines the determinants
of voting behaviour would be that irrational factors and pressure groups
invoking religious communities’ factors, the influence of money, a leader's
charismatic personality, and other unfair forces have a substantial impact on
the minds of voters. The major purpose of this research is to increase
understanding of Indian voting behaviour and to discover the factors that
impact voting behaviour in India. The results of this study haveutilized to
educate politicians and individuals in India about voting behaviour. Morton (2015)Voters' strategic answers to exit poll findings have been investigated,
but their responses to actual turnout in the same election have largely gone
unexamined. Numerous studies in economics, philosophy, and political science
have all attempted to shed light on the vexing topic of why people vote. Better
theoretical models or data from an experimental context have dominated the
literature. Voter participation has been influenced by a variety of factors,
including social image, population size and stability, historical turnout and
habit development, and the level of competition in previous elections, among
many others. Rathaur, M. (2018)Unlike most of its neighbors and beyond, India has avoided coups and revolutions in order to change governments, preferring to do it through the "ballot" rather than the "bullet." It is reason for concern when some Western democracies are revealed to have a "democratic deficit." The country's steadily increasing voter turnout in national, regional, and municipal elections reflects trust in the democratic process. The strong political participation of Indian citizens throughout elections resulted in the election and rejection of administrations, thereby legitimizing the country's representative democratic system. Since the late twentieth century, Indian elections and voter engagement have seen a significant transformation, notably following the 73rd and 74th Amendments, which granted voting rights to individuals at the grassroots level and introduced women's seat reservations.Consequently, the terms electoral democracy and participatory democracy have acquired new connotations, and the voting habits of the Indian populace are having an influence on the Indian democratic system, emphasizing both its virtues and its flaws as a result of their impact. New factors are now influencing voting behaviour in addition to the traditional variables that have influenced voting behaviour in the past, such as religious affiliations, caste and community, language proficiency, money, physical power, ideology, political wave, and etc. Religion, caste, and community are still important factors in voting behaviour. There are a number of other factors that have had an impact on voting behaviour throughout the previous decade. Aside from that, important changes in the country's election process and political parties have been foreshadowed by the Election Commission's role and a few electoral reforms. The constitutionally formed independent multimember electoral commission in India has taken an "active" role in ensuring "free and fair elections." The development, destruction, and sway of public opinion are all influenced by audio-visual media. This article focuses on election issues and changes in voter behaviour that have been seen in the country, rather than on the country's political culture in general. Khalil, U., Mookerjee, S., & Tierney, R. (2019) By using staggered structure of the Indian General Elections, where voting occurs over several weeks, the study how geographic heterogeneity in election dynamics influences future voter turnout. The effect of a particular phase's average voter turnout on the turnout of a following phase by using a quasi-random assignment of constituencies to electoral phases at every election. Two unique instrumental variables are used to cope with endogeneity problems in the estimate of social interactions: Prior to the implementation of staggered voting, each precinct's historical average turnout was calculated by counting the number of voters who cast ballots at each polling place. An increase in turnout of one percentage point (pp) decreases the turnout of succeeding phases by between 0.3 and 0.5 percentage points (pp). There has been zero influence on voter participation in the present phase, any constituencies in the same phase, or any future phases of the same election, according to falsification testing. The researcher conclude that the statistics strongly support an ethical voting model, in which each agent acts as though he or she is a role model for the rest of the population and strives to maximize societal welfare. |
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Main Text |
Voting Behaviour Voting behaviour refers
to the way individuals cast their ballots, as well as the variables that impact
them. It illustrates what elements impact or decide a voter's decision to vote
in this research. Observation of voting statistics, records, and other election
data is only one aspect of voter behaviour research (shifts). Aspects of voter
psychology, such as how they perceive and feel about politics and the
institutions that support it, are also addressed. Voting behaviour is not
a new concept. However, in recent years, it's been used to designate topics of
research and political occurrences that were previously unimagined or dismissed
as unimportant. The study of voting behaviour includes the collection and
analysis of vote records and data, as well as projections of electoral changes
and swings. Individual ’s psychological processes (image, emotion, and
motivation) and organizational structures (such as the communication process)
are also examined in connection to political activity and their influence on
election results, as well as both."Voting Behaviours is a topic of
research that focuses on how individuals vote in public elections and why they
vote the way they do," according to the website. Voting behaviour is now
considered a large and board topic of research under the wider categorization
of political behaviour, which is a phrase that has lately been expanded in
significance. Voting is used to investigate human political behaviour. As a
voter, you have a window into the minds of the millions of individuals that
participate in the political process by voting. These topics are crucial in the
field of political science because they allow for the systematic and
qualitative evaluation of theoretical predictions (Antunes, 2010). Electoral behaviour is broken down into electoral
behaviour. Political scientists have long sought to understand how and why
public officials and the general public make choices. Understanding voter
behaviour may assist. When it became necessary to explain voting behaviour
using both political science and psychology, a new branch of study called
electoral psychology was created. Scholars of political psychology are looking
at the impact of effect on voting decisions, and some suggest that affect may
explain how voters make intelligent political judgements despite low levels of
political attention and skill. Bruter and Harrison, on the other hand, argue
that electoral psychology incorporates the ways in which people's
personalities, memories, emotions, and other psychological elements influence
their voting experience and conduct. Gender, race, culture, and religion all need to be
considered when drawing conclusions and making predictions regarding voting
behaviour. The affluence and geographic location of an elector's home can also
have an effect on their voting behaviour, which is something that can be
considered from a more theoretical perspective. Emotions, political
socialization, tolerance for a variety of political viewpoints, and the media
are other important public influencers.Concepts on the formation of attitudes,
opinions, schema, procedural knowledge, and the practice of information
processing are the finest tools for understanding the impact of these effects
on voting behaviour. People in individualistic societies with rights such as
the ability to vote, for example, are typically happy, according to polls from
many nations. Moreover, family and friend-based social and peer factors have a
considerable impact on elections and voting behaviour. The quality of really
democratic outcomes is determined by how much internal and external dynamics
impact voting decisions. According to Bruter and Harrison, voters discriminate
between "referees" and "supporters" while voting in
elections, implying that the decision is more than a preference. Elections are a kind of democratic involvement in which all citizens express their views on individuals and issues by filling out a ballot. Voting is a democratic expression of class struggle. Voting surveys have found significant variances in political views among people of various ages, classes, education levels, religious affiliations, and ethnic backgrounds. The events of a person's life have an impact on whether or not they vote right or left. Political sociology, often known as sociological politics, is a relatively new topic of advanced study, not a discipline, that is gaining steam as a consequence of research into election behaviour, which mixes politics with sociology. The ability of political parties and pressure organizations to use religious and community elements, the power of money or a leader's magnetic personality, and a slew of other illogical conditions all have an influence on voters' decisions. If an empirical politics student focusses his attention on how favorable election results are formed, these illogical explanations can be recognized or discerned. This is true of any democratic system, including Uttar Pradesh's. Prof.V.M.Sirsikar, on the other hand, properly observes: "A study into the process of election exposes causes other than rationality". Figure 1: Model of voter’s choice behavior Source:Researchgate.net/figure/Model-of-voters-choice-behavior-Newman-and-Sheth-1985-p179_fig4_276944287 Determinates
of Voting Behaviours The following are the
primary political and socioeconomic elements that influence voting behaviour in
our democratic system: 1. Charisma Charisma is a key aspect
in voting behaviour. People in vast numbers are attracted to and reverenced by
an outstanding factor or override group elements leader, or they are terrified
to talk or do anything against the wants of the powerful leader, depending on
how they're used to. Fortunately, in our nation, the charismatic factor that
contributes to progress has played a part in recent elections. Attendance at
gatherings addressed by legendary characters like Nehru and Indira, as well as
the quick shift in voter sentiment after hearing the pleas of such luminaries
as Vajpayee and Modi, may be taken as proof that charisma plays an important
part in influencing our voting habits. 2. Caste In India, caste
continues to influence voting behaviour. It has deep societal origins and
serves as a vital basis for social ties on all levels. Despite the introduction
of a number of legislations prohibiting discrimination and action based on
caste, caste maintains to be a role in political behaviour. The Indian
political system is well-known for its caste politics and casteism in politics.
Every Indian political party, without exception, considers caste when
developing policies, programmes, and electoral strategies. When picking
candidates to run in a constituency election, caste is a criterion to consider.
To acquire votes, caste is employed. Caste is more important than ever in
politics, and politics is more important than ever in caste. In rural India,
voters are mostly concerned about caste. Despite the adoption of democratic
standards that foresee a caste-free society, the caste system remains in Indian
politics. 3. Religion Despite the foundation
of a secular state in India, which guarantees religious freedom, respects all
religions equally, and does not designate any religion as the state religion,
religious beliefs continue to influence political and voting behaviour. Political
parties and neo-political groups affiliated with various religions, such as the
Muslim League, Akali Dal, Hindu Maha Sabha, Shiv Sena and others have endured
in part because religion continues to be a major element in voting behaviour.
The selection of candidates is done with the presence of a religious majority
in mind. Candidates aren't afraid to play the religion card with fellow
believers and the secular card with non-believers in order to get support for
their positions. Voters frequently base their decisions on their religious
beliefs. 4. Language India is a multi-lingual
country with a diverse population. Voting behaviour is influenced by a variety
of factors, including linguistics. The fact that India's states are organised
on a linguistic basis completely shows the importance of language as a political
force in the country. It has happened in some countries that there have been
issues with one or more languages having a specific status in that country or
with the quality of the status of a language in a particular country. Because
individuals have an emotional relationship to their native languages, they are
easily swayed when an issue connected to language is brought to their
attention. Interests in linguistics always have an impact on voting behaviour. 5. Money
Factor India is an impoverished
country with a big population living below the poverty line. Money, in and of
itself, has a significant effect in deciding people's voting behaviour in
India. Elections are more likely to be won by a rich candidate or party. In
normal conditions, this only occurs, not during a wave election or when other
critical concerns are present. The Congress(I) was defeated in 1989, despite an
expensive political campaign. 6. Sub-Nationalism The harsh realities of
Indian society include ethnic plurality, communalism, regionalism, and
sub-nationalism. Since recently, people's voting decisions have been heavily
influenced by sub-nationalism. Occasionally, a separatist organisation calls
for a boycott of elections and utilizes pressure techniques to persuade
citizens to vote against a certain party. 7. Performance
of the Party in Power When a political party
runs for office, it does so with an election manifesto, and it is expected to
deliver on the promises it made in that document. People's basic behaviour is
greatly influenced by the ruling party's performance, good or poor, based only
on election promises made and pledges actually fulfilled. During the 1979
election, the Congress (I), which had achieved a landslide victory in the
previous election in 1984, failed to even gain a simple majority. Both the
Congress Party and the Janata Dal failed to win elections in 1989 and 1991 as a
result of their incapacity to impose and maintain a political stability. Many
young people from rich upper-middle-class households who are prepared to switch
allegiances based on their performance have been the main factor behind this
movement. 8. Mass Literacy Additionally, the vast
availability of information has played a role in influencing voting behaviour
in India. A political party, a religious sect, or a militant organisation may
be able to play on people's irrational impulses in order to further their own
ends. Because the votes of the illiterate make up a large percentage of all
votes cast, they have a significant effect on the outcome of elections.Despite
this trait, common sense and maturity gained from life's lessons have also
influenced voters' ideas and behaviours in the past and present. In 1977, they
banded together to combat the forces of authoritarianism, and in 1980, they
banded together once more to beat the nonperformers which have banded together. 9. Factionalism Indian politics, from
the village to the national level, is rife with factionalism. The BJP, which is
founded on cadres, and the two communist parties both struggle with
factionalism. As Rajani Kothari points out, the Congress is a place where this
happens on a regular basis. Power has been diminished for a political party
with a legendary history, a fragile present, and a grim future. Other political
parties are also impacted by factionalism. 10. Public
Esteem of the Candidate Voting behaviour is
always influenced by a candidate's report with the people in his or her
constituency, as well as by his or her known attributes or contribution to any
value spread of activity. The type and level of a voter's affiliation with a
candidate, in addition to his or her party's allegiance and position on
numerous issues and problems, is always taken into consideration when deciding.
A positive image of a candidate for a political party might help the party gain
popular support. A voter wants to support a politician who is approachable and
willing to help him in any capacity he need. 11. Election
Campaigns In order to sway voters
in their favour, each political party mounts a ferocious election campaign.
Campaigns rely on a wide range of tactics to get out the vote: large-scale
events and personal interactions; campaign posters and poster wars; celebrity
speeches; broadcasts on radio and television; newspaper ads; hand bills;
processions; and propaganda. Votes that aren't cast in a centralized location
are critical in this contest.The goal of an election campaign is to persuade a
voter that the party, and especially the candidate from that party running in
his or her area, is best suited to represent his or her interests. (Hix, & Noury, 2016). Below
Poverty Line (BPL) Below Poverty Line is a measure used by the Indian
government to identify people and families in need of help. It's used to
measure economic disadvantage. It's dependent on a variety of characteristics
that differ from state to state and even within states. The current set of
criteria was developed as a result of a referendum in 2002. Undecided on how to
identify families in poverty in India's census, which will take place in 10
years, the country's central government. Extreme poverty is defined as a daily income per person of less than $150 in purchasing power parity. Approximately 12.4 percent of Indians are considered to be extremely poor, according to this assessment. Income-based poverty lines take into consideration only the bare minimum income required to meet basic food needs, leaving out other necessities like health care and education. Figure 2: Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line
Source: Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India Indian Politics and Poor In India, the poor and disadvantaged castes vote more
than the wealthier and higher castes, and frequently more than those in
established democracies. In the same way, voter turnout in rural regions is
higher than in urban areas. Although not all elected state governments have
policies that benefit the poor, the impoverished have higher expectations of
the government than the wealthy. The impoverished and disenfranchised in India
have trust in the democratic process because they expect the government to give
equal opportunity to all citizens, regardless of caste, creed, religion, or
economic background, and to actively endeavour to remove these barriers. However, the state is bound by economic and social
institutions as well as the political process of governing. In contrast to
political institutions, these reflect existing disparities and are
market-driven. The democratic system does imply some kind of equality in the
form of universal suffrage, which allows the poor to have their opinions heard
regardless of their economic status. However, this does not always imply a
commitment to justice and equality. Indeed, as compared to non-democratic
countries like China, developing-country democracies have a poor track record
in alleviating poverty. Voting Behaviour of BPL According to the latest
SBI Eco wrap report, as India prepares for the Lok Sabha election in 2019,
voter turnout is crucial. However, if previous voter participation data is any
indication, poverty and deprivation may prohibit individuals from exercising
their most basic right. In India, it has been observed that poor people vote
less.According to the SBI report, states in the north with greater poverty
ratios, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, had lower
voter turnout. In contrast, states with lesser levels of deprivation, like as
Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Punjab, have greater
voter turnout. According to a new version of the worldwide Multidimensional
Poverty Index, India's poverty rate fell dramatically from 55 percent in
2005-06 to 28 percent in 2015-16. It has lifted 27.10 crore people out of
poverty as a result of this. Nonetheless, a sizable section of the population
remains impoverished, suffering from a variety of hardships. The Oxford Poverty &
Human Development Initiative's Multidimensional Poverty Index is based on the
deprivations that each person faces in terms of education, health, and living
standard. The SBI report examines voter turnout patterns in this setting. According to the SBI
report, most southern and northern states that were home to the agricultural
revolution have more conscious voters. Furthermore, the majority of the
North-East and Eastern states have greater turnout rates and varying levels of
poverty, according to the report. In many regions,
socio-political characteristics such as population size, age, educational
achievement, political interest, and economic backwardness have enormous
influence on election outcomes.
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Methodology | For the gathering of primary and secondary data, the approach used in this study was a random sampling method. Individual interviews with Below Poverty Line peopleswere conducted, as well as a field survey using organized schedules and questions. In addition, data from the Census of India, election reports, discussions in the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha (on specific themes), and party manifestos are utilized. The questionnaire was given to 200 respondents who were easily chosen to participate in this research. Questionnaire has been translated to their languagein oral form for better understanding. The questionnaire is divided in two parts that contains demographic questions and questions about their voting behaviour. Secondary data includes pertinent books, journals, and other published materials in the subject area, as well as national and regional newspapers and periodicals in English and Hindi. Internet resources have also been frequently used. The rigorous scientific approachof Stratified Random Sampling was used to gather representative samples of the cross - sections of Kanpur Lok Sabha constituency electorates. |
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Sampling |
Random Sampling Method
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Tools Used | Individual interviews with Below Poverty Line peoples were conducted, as well as a field survey using organized schedules and questions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Result and Discussion |
The demographic of gender shown that out of 200
respondents, male is 150as compared of female is50. The demographic of age
shows that out of 200 respondents, the age of 18-25 is 90, whereas the age of
25- 40 is 60 and the age of 40 and above is 50. The demographic of occupation
shown that out of 200 respondents, the wage workers is 88, whereasself-employed
is 70 and unemployed is 42. Table 1: The level of educational qualification of the
voter’s
Table 2: Descriptiveof education qualification on their voting behaviour of BPL In the table 1, the
level of educational qualification of the voter’s has been described. There is
total 200 respondents. Out of which 160 is uneducated and their responses
percentage is 80. 40 is educated and their responses percentage is 40. Study
showed that there is significant impact of education qualification on their
voting behaviour of BPL. In table 2, descriptive statistics of educational
qualification has been shown. Table described that mean score of educated and uneducated
are slightly changed. Uneducated mean score is 38.3 and educated is 37.9. Table 3: ANOVA
of Voting Behaviour of BPL
Table 3 showed that
significant impact of education qualification on their voting behaviour of BPL.
Because significance value is less than 0.05 (i,e, 0.003). Table 4: Schemes
of government provide for BPL voters
Figure3:
Schemes of government provide for BPL voters In the table above shows thatfive government schemes for
BPL peoples are how much contributed. In Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana
people are contributed 20%, in Atal Pension Yojana (APY) contributed 10%, In Sukanya
Samriddhi Yojana contributed 18%, in Free ration schemes contributed 43%,
and in Stand-Up India Scheme contributed 10%. |
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Conclusion |
Poverty alleviation is a political necessity for elected leaders in India because of the structure of the democratic system. To do this, the government must act as a middleman between diverse organizations, promote fairness through effective market regulation, and enact transfer and taxation policies to redistribute resources from the rich to the poor. Elections play a crucial role in democratic governance. It's a mechanism for people to express and enforce their political beliefs while also managing BPL society's political structure. In order to win the war of the ballot box, political parties and organizations employ a variety of criteria to sway a voter's decision-making process, including faith, caste, language, income, policy or belief, the aim of the polls, the number of BPL eligible voters, and etc. Because of this, the exploitation of these factors must be avoided at all costs and elections must be held in a transparent and fair way. It also relies on whether or not the system permits individuals to have freedom of opinion, speech, and association. A political system is not democratic just because it has an election system. People's ‘will’ be represented by voting in elections, hence all undemocratic and unfair methods, such as rigging and manipulating the results, must be avoided. No action be done that would jeopardize the popular ‘will’ represented by elections in any way. 0% 50% Pradhan Mantri Suraksha… Atal Pension Yojana (APY) Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana Free ration scheme’s Stand Up India Scheme 20% 10% 18% 43% 10% 11 It is a well-known truth that there are some or all variables of electoral behaviour that differ from nation to country in all democracies. The factors are embedded in the diversity of India. Since the country's independence or elections, the cate, religion, linguistic area, and other factors have always played a major influence in selecting who would reign. These characteristics are harmful to Indian democracy because they may lead to the control of a caste, a language, money, or the powerful, among other things, and when that happens, democracy loses its meaning. However, it cannot be said with certainty that all people vote according to these factors; but with the rise in educational attainment, modernization and the acceptance of rationality, people to a significant extent also vote on factors like education, involvement of the candidate in criminal activities, their performance and etc. However, because the population is so small, certain measures, such as providing high-quality education, prohibiting criminal leaders, reducing poverty, educating voters properly, creating jobs, resolving farmer issues, and upholding the rule of law, are necessary. Parties and leaders should also exercise strict control over their use of religion, caste, region, language, and other identifying characteristics to sway voters. Alternatively, the researcher seeks tight regulations prohibiting them from using these criteria to bring greater fairness to the system and to develop democracy. |
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Limitation of the Study | Limited to the particular geographical area. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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