Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 46

Indian Politics & Policy
voters considered the most important
while voting in the 2014 and 2019 general
elections, contrasted with any other
issue mentioned by the respondent. As
mentioned in the previous section, the
dependent variable takes on two values:
1=Voted for BJP and 0=Voted for
Congress. In the 2014 general election,
respondents for whom the top four issues
mattered the most while voting
(as compared to any other issues mentioned)
were significantly more likely to
vote for the BJP than Congress. When
we look at the disaggregated picture for
issues, male respondents in 2014 were
more likely to vote for the BJP than the
female respondents were. With Muslims
as the reference category, Hindus
and respondents from other religions
were more likely to vote for the BJP in
2014 than Congress. When compared
to all other (non-minority) castes, the
minority castes of SC, ST, and OBC
were significantly less likely to vote for
the BJP in 2014 elections. The income
of the respondent did not come up as
a significant determinant of voting for
the BJP in 2014. With urban locality as
a reference category, if the respondent
was from a rural locality, they were less
likely to vote for the BJP. For the education
variable, we find interesting results,
where education does not seem to play
a statistically significant role in determining
voter choice for a party for the
said election. Similarly, young respondents
of 18 to 29 years of age do not
show a significant preference of voting
for the BJP as compared to their older
counterparts.
Table 4: Logistic regression of vote for the BJP/ Congress with top four important election
issues and other variables in the 2019 and 2014 general elections
Vote for BJP/Congress as dependent variable
1= Vote for BJP, 0=Vote for Congress
Variables Vote for BJP 2014 Vote for BJP 2019
Other Issues Ref. Ref.
Price Rise
0.122*** -0.161***
(0.013) (0.026)
Corruption
0.162*** -0.013
(0.015) (0.026)
Unemployment
0.096*** -0.039**
(0.017) (0.015)
Development
0.057*** 0.015
(0.017) (0.012)
Female Ref. Ref.
Male
0.018* 0.004
(0.010) (0.010)
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