Electoral Behaviour — Meaning

Voting behaviour

The study of how and why voters vote.

“The term ‘voting behaviour’ is not new. But it has been used of late to describe certain areas of study and types of political phenomena which previously had either not been conceived or were considered irrelevant.”

Samuel S. Eldersveld

J. K. Plano and Riggs define it as a field studying how people tend to vote and why. Richard Rose and Harve Mossawir identify voting functions: choice of rulers, choice of policies, exchange of influence with representatives, allegiance to the constitutional order, possible disaffection and emotional meaning. Mukulika Banerjee’s ethnography shows Indian voters treat voting as a citizenship duty, a sacred duty, an inversion of power, revenge, community assertion, the selection and rejection of rulers, and the protection of democracy.

Determinants of Voting

Caste

Deep social roots; shapes candidate selection and mobilisation. Mandal raised its electoral salience; urbanisation changes caste voting but does not remove it.

“Politics is more important to caste and caste is more essential to politics than previously.”

W. H. Morris-Jones

Religion, charisma, money

Religion shapes mobilisation, candidate selection and issue framing — the Muslim League, Akali Dal, Hindu Mahasabha, Shiv Sena, BJP and AIMIM show its role. Charisma: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi, with slogans such as Garibi Hatao, “Indira means India, India means Indira” and Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi. Money power shapes campaign reach, candidate selection and voter contact, and the Election Commission has struggled to fully control expenditure.

Campaigns, manifestos, economy, media, women

Campaigns run from rallies, processions and door-to-door contact to posters, radio, television, film personalities, newspapers, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter/X and digital outreach. Manifestos promise welfare, jobs, development and identity protection, and performance against them affects incumbency. Economy and performance matter — prices, jobs, public goods, corruption, inflation, growth, welfare delivery and pocket-book voting; Atul Kohli stresses economic performance, and Poonam Gupta and Arvind Panagariya connect growth with incumbent success. Media: Robin Jeffrey highlights its role in shaping opinion, with digital campaigns widening information but raising misinformation risks. Women voters increasingly make autonomous choices; welfare schemes such as Ujjwala target them and turnout has risen.

The Changing Indian Voter

The Indian voter today votes in greater numbers, is better informed, more performance-conscious, more media-exposed and more open to welfare evaluation, less mechanically tied to caste — but still shaped by identity.

The 2019 result was a “win of social strong chemistry against caste arithmetic.”

Narendra Modi

Subrata Mitra and Singh, in Democracy and Social Change in India, argue electoral politics is a tool of democratic social transformation; Yogendra Yadav sees voters moving from identity politics to Identity Plus politics.

“The voting behaviour of Indians is many times more mature than the voting behaviour of voters in Western countries.”

Prannoy Roy, Ashok Lahiri & David Butler

“The credit for the success of India’s democracy goes to the great common people shown by ordinary voters in India.”

M. P. Singh

State Funding & Electoral Reform

State funding

Public financial support for parties or candidates.

In favour — reduces dependence on corporate money, creates a level playing field, checks black money, improves fairness, encourages clean candidates, strengthens democracy. Concerns — may fund non-serious parties, is hard to monitor, may not end private funding, requires strong audit, and burdens the exchequer.

Committees and reports — Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections (1998), the Law Commission Report on Reform of Electoral Laws (1999), the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2001) and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2008). A workable middle path: partial state funding, in-kind support, strict audit, transparent donations, spending caps, internal party democracy and strong Election Commission oversight.

PR, EVMs, the Election Code & Delimitation

Proportional representation allocates seats in proportion to vote share, encourages smaller parties, helps minorities and dispersed groups and can increase coalition politics. India uses First-Past-The-Post for the Lok Sabha and Assemblies; its FPTP has still produced multi-party competition because of social diversity and federalism.

Electronic Voting Machines bring faster counting, fewer invalid votes, less paper handling and logistical efficiency, but trust and transparency concerns require audit mechanisms such as the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. Election Code of Conduct revision debates centre on campaign fairness, misuse of state machinery, hate speech, religious appeals, money power, social-media regulation and enforcement capacity.

Delimitation

The adjustment of constituency boundaries and representation.

India held Delimitation Commissions in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. The 42nd Amendment (1976) froze seat revision; the 84th Amendment extended the freeze until after the first census after 2026. Population growth created disparities — densely populated and northern states outran southern ones, urban constituencies grew very large, and the value of a vote now differs across states. Population Census-2027 has revived the debate, raising representation fairness, federal balance, North–South tension, women’s reservation implementation, reserved-seat recalibration and democratic equality.