What Affects Voters’ Choice in Uttar Pradesh?

A survey covering 18 districts delving into the details of how and why people vote in the elections
BK Bajpai Lucknow

Contrary to the prevailing impression candidates quality rather than caste or religion affects voters' choice in Uttar Pradesh. This has been found in a survey of knowledge and practice of voters in the state by the present author. The survey was conducted during the months of October to December 2011 in 18 districts spread over the four regions of UP and covered over 5000 respondents. Three Legislative Assembly Constituencies from each of the sample district was selected for the study. The study was commissioned by the Chief Election Office UP in the light of the forthcoming general election for the state assembly. The basic purpose of the study was to help understand the knowledge, attitude, practices, behaviour and faith of voters of the state in existing system across the demographic features, the socio-economic structure in terms of class and gender divide, cultural traditions, literacy level, leadership abilities their pattern and other critical issues.

Knowledge about electoral process
On an average, 97.70 per cent of the total sample respondents were reported to be aware with voters list. Out of the total respondents having knowledge about voters list, 87.10 per cent had their names in voters list. The booth level officers turned out to be the most important source for providing information regarding the name in the voter list of voters across the regions. The second most important source turned out to be the local community leaders, as more than 29 per cent of the enrolled voters got information through them.

Table 1: Voters Knowledge about Voter List and Enrolment (If enrolled, who informed you about your enrolment in Voter list)