Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 37

Do Issues Matter in Indian Elections?
I. Introduction
In Indian politics, electoral issues
play an important role in projecting
the vital concerns of the electorate
in conveying the primary needs
of voters: i.e., what do the voters want?
These issues may be raised by opposition
parties (good governance issues
raised against the Congress Party in
2014 national elections); by the incumbent
government, showcasing
their achievements and performance
throughout their term (issues of improved
educational and health facilities
by the Aam Aadmi Party in 2020 Delhi
elections); or by incidents immediately
preceding the elections (issues of security
and defending national pride amid
attacks by terrorist groups and India’s
retaliation just before the 2019 national
elections). The present paper 1 therefore
probes whether voters consider such issues
while voting or not, and if they do,
which political party do they vote for? 2
It assesses some of the major election
issues of the last two general elections
(2014 and 2019) in the context of the
two largest national parties of India, the
Indian National Congress (Congress)
and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 3
Political parties in India seldom
overlook the socialistic and welfare concerns
of the electorate. A lot of the issues
raised during elections and in party
manifestos endorse the concerns of
poor and marginalized citizens, which
is appropriate when more than 70 million
people in India live in extreme poverty.
4 Uprooting poverty through direct
measures, such as public provision of
income or food or assets to the poor,
has been lucrative to political parties,
as these issues are of short-term gain
and more visible in comparison to indirect
methods mediated through high
economic growth, which need a longer
time to materialize and to be beneficial
for voters. 5 This is the reason that many
parties target welfare services for the
poor, fulfilling basic needs during election
campaigns and between elections. 6
There have been many studies
elaborating the Indian voters’ participation
in elections and linking their
social identities, such as caste, locality,
gender, education, etc., to their voting
behavior. 7 Political parties can be seen
cashing in on these identities during
elections, for their benefit. Elliott, in an
ethnographic narrative of the 2009 Assembly
Elections in Andhra Pradesh,
shows how political parties tried to
provide huge “benefits” to the voters by
promising them televisions, cash transfer
schemes, and a host of other welfare
schemes, such as widow pensions,
housing subsidies, tuition reimbursement
for poor backward caste students,
etc. 8 However, we have less evidence on
whether the issues raised (either by incumbent
or opposition parties) during
elections are the ones that voters actually
ponder and that may lead to their
voting choice. It is often perceived that
election issues raised at political rallies
and during media campaigns largely
address the concerns of voters. Each
political party is well aware of the demands
of the voters and tries to project
itself as their only savior. While each
party sets an agenda prior to every
election and updates their manifestos
accordingly, we do not have conclusive
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