ADR-Daksh Survey Report for Chhattisgarh region
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has conducted the largest ever survey in India with over 250,000 respondents in 530 Lok Sabha constituencies. The larger purpose of the survey is to highlight voter priorities so that elections in future are fought on voter issues, and more importantly, the manifestos of future Governments reflect voter priorities.
In Chhattisgarh , the purpose of the survey was multi-fold:
- To Rate MPs from the state on a Scale of 10
- To know Top 10 pressing issues for voters in the state
- To know voting behaviour of people
- To know what is the role of caste, religion, crime and money power in elections
The findings of the survey:
Rating of MPs: The voters have rated the performance of MPs as Good, Average or Bad on governance issues like employment, water, electricity, roads, food, education and health.
The highest scoring MP from Chhattisgarh is Dinesh Kashyap of BJP fromBastarconstituency with 7.56points (Above average),followed by Charan Das Mahantof Congress from Korba constituency with 7.15 points (Above average).Sohan Potai of BJP from Kanker constituency is on the 3rd position with 7.04 points.
The survey has also tried to identify the gap between voters' expectations on governance issues and performance of MPs on those issues. If the expectation of voters score is more than the performance score it means voters are unhappy. And if expectation of voters score is less than the performance of MPs then voters are actually happy.
However,out of 11 MPs from Chhattisgarh only 2 MPs have exceeded the expectation of the people. And 5 MPs have performed above average (The Average performance rating is 6.67)
Please see the Table I for individual performance rating of all the MPs from Chhattisgarh . (The 'Overall Performance Rating' column is the actual rating of the MPsand the 'Expectations of Voters on Governance issues' column shows people's expectations from their MPs on a scale of 10)
Top 10 pressing issues for voters. To identify what are voter priorities in terms of governance issues like water, electricity, roads, food, education and health, a list of 30 items was given to voters and they were asked to rate whether a particular issue was High, Medium, or Low. This list was comprehensive as less than 5% said that there were "other issues" beyond the list.
In Chhattisgarh , Subsidy for seeds and fertilizers, Irrigation Programmes and Drinking water are the Top 3 issues about which people are most concerned.
Please seeTable II to know the overall 10 most pressing issues for the people of Chhattisgarh which they want their MPs to focus on, Table III for top 10 issues in rural areas of the state andTable IV to know top 10 issues in urban areas.
Table –I
| S.No. | Constituency | Name of MP | Party | Expectations of Voters on governanceissue | Overall Performance Rating | Average Performance |
| 1 | 02Bastar (ST) | Dinesh Kashyap | BJP | 7.76 | 7.56 | Above Average |
| 2 | 06Korba | Charan Das Mahant | INC | 7.13 | 7.15 | Above Average |
| 3 | 03Kanker (ST) | Sohan Potai | BJP | 7.45 | 7.04 | Above Average |
| 4 | 01Sarguja (ST) | Murarilal Singh | BJP | 7.28 | 7.02 | Above Average |
| 5 | 04Raigarh (ST) | Vishnu Deo Sai | BJP | 7.18 | 6.88 | Above Average |
| 6 | 09Durg | Saroj Pandey | BJP | 7.15 | 6.62 | Below Average |
| 7 | 08Rajnandgaon | Madhusudan Yadav | BJP | 6.41 | 6.49 | Below Average |
| 8 | 07Bilaspur | Dilip Singh Judev | BJP | 6.31 | 6.09 | Below Average |
| 9 | 05Janjgir-Champa(SC) | Shrimati Kamla Devi Patle | BJP | 6.40 | 6.06 | Below Average |
| 10 | 11Mahasamund | Chandulal Sahu (Chandu Bhaiya) | BJP | 6.53 | 5.99 | Below Average |
| 11 | 10Raipur | Ramesh Bais | BJP | 6.02 | 5.48 | Below Average |
| CHHATTISGARH | 6.83 | 6.54 |
Overall Top 10 issues for Chhattisgarh :
Table –II
| 1 | Subsidy for seeds and fertilizers | 7.54 |
| 2 | Irrigation Programmes | 7.35 |
| 3 | Drinking water | 7.17 |
| 4 | Better roads | 7.12 |
| 5 | Trustworthiness of MP | 7.09 |
| 6 | Empowerment of Women | 7.09 |
| 7 | Better schools | 7.09 |
| 8 | Better public transport | 7.02 |
| 9 | Subsidized food distribution | 7.00 |
| 10 | Security for women | 6.96 |
Top 10 issues in Rural areas:
Table –III
| 1 | Subsidy for seeds and fertilizers | 7.53 |
| 2 | Irrigation Programmes | 7.35 |
| 3 | Drinking water | 7.12 |
| 4 | Better roads | 7.08 |
| 5 | Empowerment of Women | 7.06 |
| 6 | Trustworthiness of MP | 7.06 |
| 7 | Better schools | 7.01 |
| 8 | Better public transport | 6.94 |
| 9 | Subsidized food distribution | 6.94 |
| 10 | Security for women | 6.93 |
Top 10 issues in Urban areas:
Table –IV
| 1 | Better schools | 7.51 |
| 2 | Traffic congestion | 7.48 |
| 3 | Drinking water | 7.44 |
| 4 | Better public transport | 7.41 |
| 5 | Lower food prices for Consumers | 7.39 |
| 6 | Better roads | 7.35 |
| 7 | Subsidized food distribution | 7.30 |
| 8 | Better Law and Order / Policing | 7.30 |
| 9 | Trustworthiness of MP | 7.27 |
| 10 | Better garbage clearance | 7.21 |
The voting behavior of people in Chhattisgarh
The survey tried to identify the important factors that people take into account before voting for a particular Candidate. Issue like whether the Candidate matters the most or his Political Party or other issues like caste/religion of the Candidate, PM Candidate of the party, and Distribution of 'gifts' etc. are more important?
People in Chhattisgarh gave more importance to the candidate himself than the party of the candidate. The Caste/Religion of the candidateand PM candidate of the partywere the 3rd and 4th most important factors which voters consider before voting.
Please see the Table V to find out important factors which people consider before voting for a candidate and what weightage (points) they give to each of the factors:
Table –V
| State | CHHATTISGARH |
| Why people vote: | |
| Party | 6.41 |
| Candidate | 6.98 |
| PM Candidate | 5.41 |
| Caste/religion | 5.80 |
| Distribution of 'gifts' | 5.23 |
| Yes/No "knowledge and opinion questions": Do you know | |
| "Gifts" for vote is illegal | 69.74% |
| Candidates distributing 'gifts' | 30.63% |
| You can get candidate criminal record | 55.31% |
| Why do people vote for those with serious criminal records: | |
| Candidate does good work | 57.75% |
| Powerful Candidate | 39.29% |
| Spending in elections | 31.72% |
| Cases not serious | 51.75% |
| Voters don't know | 53.69% |
| Caste or religion | 44.73% |
Role of caste, religion, crime and money power in elections. The survey also tried to identify if voters are aware of the use of money and muscle power in elections . Specifically, whether they are aware of distribution of gifts and money by candidates before polls or they have the knowledge about the criminal record of their candidates.
It was observed that nearly 70 per cent of people in Chhattisgarh is well aware that distribution of gifts and money by candidates ahead of elections is illegal. However, only 56 per cent of people knew that they can get an information about the criminal records of their candidates easily.
What is also observed that over 58 per cent people in Chhattisgarh ignore the criminal record of their candidates because they feel such candidates have done "good work."Whereas around 45 per cent of people in Chhattisgarh vote for candidates facing criminal charges because they were of their own caste/ religion. Around 32 per cent people also vote for criminal candidates because they spend a lot of money during the elections.
