Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 51

Do Issues Matter in Indian Elections?
19 Devesh Kapur, “India in 1999,” Asian Survey 40 (2000): 195–207.
20 Nair and Eapen (2004).
21 In 1996, the question asked in the survey was “Talking about the elections just completed what
do you think was the main issue around which the election was fought this time?” In 2004, the
question asked was “For you, in this election which were the biggest/most important issues?”
In 2014, the question was worded slightly differently from previous years: “What was the single
most important issue for you while voting in this election?” Similarly, in 2019, the question
asked “What was the most important issue for you while voting in this election?” This question
was asked in a different manner in the surveys of 1998, 1999, and 2009.
22 Suri, K.C. (2009). The Economy and Voting in the 15th Lok Sabha Elections. Economic and
Political Weekly, Vol.44, Issue 39.
23 The question asked was “Now I will ask you about some of the issues in the election. Please tell
me if you have heard about these? (If Yes) For each one of them, please tell me how it affected
your decision of whom to vote for – not very much, a lot or almost entirely?”
24 Praveen Rai, “Issues in General Election 2009,” Economic and Political Weekly (2009): 80–82.
25 Arvind Kejriwal said on February 14, 2015, “Before this, the taxes you paid were often stolen.
I won’t allow that to happen. Every paisa you pay will be spent on education, hospitals,
roads, on improving your markets. We will build parking slots. We will spend on women's
security; on streamlining water and power supply .... The government has enough money and
resources. What is lacking is intent. If people with good intention are at the helm, there can
be lots of development.” Full text of speech: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/delhi-elections-2015/top-stories/Read-full-text-of-Arvind-Kejriwals-first-speech-as-Delhi-CM/articleshow/46247444.cms.
26 Andrew Wyatt, “Arvind Kejriwal’s Leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party,” Contemporary South
Asia 23 (2015): 167–80.
27 https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/boost-to-bjp-from-pulwama-attack-waning-ahead-of-el
ection-poll_in_5ca03bcae4b00ba6327e2c99.
28 The authors would like to thank Prof. Sanjay Kumar, Director-CSDS and Co-Director Lokniti,
for allowing access to the data for the paper. We would also like to thank Mr. Himanshu
Bhattacharya for helping us sort the data according to the parliamentary constituency requirements
of the sample.
29 Sanjay Kumar, “Caste-Based Mobilization a Reality In Indian Polls,” Deccan Chronicle, September
3, 2018, https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/columnists/030918/caste-based-mobilisation-a-reality-in-indian-polls.html.
30 In the 2009 election analysis of the NES data, Deshpande notes that “it is caste, class, age and
education of voters that mainly decide the nature of Congress support at the macro level.”
Deshpande, “How did Women Vote in Lok Sabha Elections 2009?”
31 Ibid.
32 K.K. Kailash, “The More the Things Change, the More They Stay the Same in India: The Bahujan
and the Paradox of the ‘Democratic Upsurge,’” Asian Survey 52 (2012): 321–47.
33 Accessed on March 7, 2020, https://www.thehindu.com/elections/lok-sabha-2019/the-issuesthat-mattered-in-an-issue-less-election/article27179964.ece.
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