Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 91
The Youth Vote in Lok Sabha Elections 2019 1
Vibha Attri and Jyoti Mishra
Researchers, Lokniti-Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies (CSDS), Delhi
[email protected][email protected]
Indian Politics & Policy • Vol. 3, No. 1 • Spring 2020
Abstract
The scale of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in India’s
2019 parliamentary elections took most observers by surprise. The
magnitude of the party’s victory indicates that it not only consolidated
gains made in 2014, but also further expanded its support
beyond its traditional base. Similar to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,
these elections saw a lot of buzz around young voters (18- to
25-year-olds) and the parties left no stone unturned in order to
attract this section. BJP’s share among young voters was 41 percent,
which was not only 7 percentage points higher than that in
the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but also about 4 percentage points
higher than the party’s overall vote share. So clearly, the young vote
played a significant role in the performance of the BJP and the party
not only managed to retain the youth vote, but also expanded its
support among them. Analyzing data from the National Elections
Study (NES) 2019, this paper looks into the factors that influenced
the youth vote in its favor. Satisfaction with the overall performance
and the decisions of the central government in the last five
years with a weak opposition and a weaker poll strategy helped the
BJP emerge even stronger among young voters. However, it was the
Modi’s popularity that triumphed over all other factors and had the
most impact among the young.
Keywords: youth, BJP, vote, turnout, electoral participation, issues,
Lok Sabha elections
El voto juvenil en las elecciones de Lok Sabha 2019
Resumen
La escala de la victoria del Partido Bharatiya Janata (BJP) en las
elecciones parlamentarias de la India en 2019 tomó por sorpresa a
87
doi: 10.18278/inpp.3.1.7