Saumya Khandelwal/HT

Targeted appeal Modi posters on the Delhi Metro

the voter

The Next Station

As elections near, what are the influences and issues playing on the mind of the electorate?

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As a voter walks from home to polling boothand in a country vast as India, with 815 million voters, he or she could well pass by houses and markets or hills and rivers and ravineswhat could be on his or her mind? After days and days of loudspeakers blaring, hoardings and posters looming large, political leaders making repeated pitches, is the Indian voter firm about who to vote for or will it be a last-minute decision? How much will all that has been fed to the voter over some monthscaste and class equations, regional matters, issues like development and corruption, the financial and criminal records of candidates, the debate over strong versus weak leaderscome into play? Perhaps the only thing certain is that the voter has had an information overdose. Political debates have swung from broad concerns about inflation, corruption, governance to the thoroughly basic bijli sadak pani. There have been dramatic political twists too: a seemingly far-reaching AAP wave, its highs and lows; the BJPs claim on the centrestage; the Congress retreat.

So what does the voter make of it all? If theres a common strain, its one of disenchantment, as emphasised by the Pew Research Centers latest global attitudes survey of India, which finds 70 per cent of Indians dissatisfied, cutting across gender, age groups and the urban-rural divide. Its a confusing election, because there is a lot of baggage and anxiety, says film editor Namrata Rao, who will vote in Mumbai, talking about the ideological clashes playing on her mind. More debates and engagement with voters may mean more awareness, but sociologist Dipankar Gupta says the voter seems weighed down by all the talk about indecisiveness and corruption. Foremost on a voters mind right now is the need for a stable government, he says. But what the voter is not demanding of their candidates is a blueprint of what nextof how to restructure the economy so India can become a manufacturing hub.

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, co-founder of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), thinks voters are overwhelmed. The average voter has got sucked into the grand spectacle this election has become, he says. But the truth is, theres a big disconnect between the candidate and the voter. According to Lloyd Rudolph, a former professor of political science at University of Chicago, who with his wife Susanne has observed Indian politics for more than five decades, as the three top figures of Election 2014Narendra Modi of the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP and Rahul Gandhi of the Congressassume a larger-than-life presence, the voter may feel dwarfed.

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