What are voters' priorities across States?

Photo for representation

A national survey of 2.73 lakh people across Lok Sabha constituencies found that getting better jobs was the top concern nationwide. The other key concerns were access to better healthcare and drinking water.

What are people concerned about?

About 47% of respondents said getting better job opportunities was among their top five priorities. While different States had different concerns, the overarching concern in about 19 States was better employment opportunities. In Odisha, Karnataka and Daman and Diu, drinking water availability was the top concern.

In the Delhi National Capital Region, the top concern was traffic congestion, while in Chandigarh, it was water and air pollution. In Northeast States Mizoram, Assam and Sikkim, the top priority was better hospitals or Primary Healthcare Centres.

There were four agriculture-related issues among the top 10 priorities: availability of water for agriculture; agricultural Loan availability; high price realization for farm products; and agricultural subsidy for seeds/fertilisers.

The graph below shows the percentage of people who listed a particular issue as their top priority. People rated the government below 3 out of 5 on the top 10 issues.

The survey also captured voter preferences across different indicators like age, location and caste. Priorities changed according to the demographics. For instance, in rural areas, water availability for agriculture and loan availability for agriculture were the second and third highest priorities. For Scheduled Tribes, higher price for farm produce ranked third.

The below table captures the preferences according to the demographic. The numbers indicate the order of priority. For instance, across demographics, the first priority was better job opportunities.

 

Getting better jobs was a big concern in the northern and central belt. People in these States also rated the current government as lowest on employment.

The size of each circle in the below graph represents the number of Lok Sabha seats in the State. The highest % of people who said jobs were a top priority were in Rajasthan, Telangana and Jammu & Kashmir.

 

Methodology

As many as 2.73 lakh voters were interviewed from 534 Lok Sabha constituencies. 64.84% of the respondents were from rural areas. The survey was done by Association for Democratic Reforms between Oct. and Dec. 2018. Voters’ priorities were recorded amongst 31 governance issues, and the performance of the government was rated by the respondents on those issues.