Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 45

Do Issues Matter in Indian Elections?
Fig 1: Electoral issues and demography of voters in 2019 and 2014 general elections
Source: Authors’ calculation based on Lokniti-CSDS NES 2014, 2019 post-poll studies. For 2014:
n=22295 (n=20294 in case of Hindu/Muslim, n=22235 for Youth/Non-Youth, and n=22079 for
Literate/Illiterate categories). For 2019, n=24034. All figures are in percentages and rounded.
ence in the response to “issues” between
the literate and non-literate categories.
We observe the highest difference between
the two categories during the
2014 elections, where there is a 12-percentage
point difference (literate being
higher) between the two categories of
respondents. However, this difference
comes down to 6 percentage points in
the 2019 general election.
While understanding the significance
of the education level of voters
and its influence on their thinking
about issues while voting, NES 2014
and 2019 data show that with an increase
in the educational level of the
respondents, they were more likely to
mention issues that affected their voting.
A detailed analysis of the education
categories shows that respondents with
the education of college level and above
showed about 17 percentage points
more consideration for election issues
than their non-literate counterparts
(in 2014). Even primary education
made a difference to thinking about issues
while voting, as respondents with
primary education were 7 percentage
points more likely to mention an issue
than their non-literate counterparts (in
2019). However, it should be noted that
even non-literate respondents reported
high responses to thinking about issues
while voting (69 percent in 2014 and
67 percent in 2019), which further increased
with incremental levels of education,
finally peaking at 78 percent in
2014 and 86 percent in 2019 for those
with a college education and above.
To further elaborate on the Voting
on Issues variable, we analyze the
vote for Congress and the BJP based on
specific issues mentioned by respondents
during elections. Table 4 presents
the logistic regression of the BJP and
Congress with the top four issues that
41