The political arena in Gujarat is heating up ahead of the Assembly elections in December this year. And amid all the political heat between parties; a survey by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has made an attempt to check the pulse of the people of Gujarat.

According to ADR study, the voters in Gujarat consider caste and religion as the prime factor when they vote for a particular candidate, says The Indian Express. “People in Gujarat gave most importance to the caste/religion of a candidate, followed by the PM or the CM candidate from the party of the candidate. The candidate was given the least importance”, states the survey. The ADR survey covered 270,000 respondents in 527 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country between January and April that highlighted the priority of the voters in the state. It was also derived from the study that the candidate happens to be the least important reason for a voter while making the choice.

The caste or religion of a candidate got an average score of 8.27 from respondents, while the candidate got 4.58 on a scale of 1 to 10. The other factors that were considered important the party’s PM or CM candidate, the party itself and distribution of gifts. “Nearly 61 percent of the respondents in Gujarat was aware of the distribution of gifts, while 29 percent knew that gift distribution is illegal”, Major General Anil Verma (retired), ADR head was quoted saying by The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, voters expect job opportunities as the major issue in the state. On a scale of 1-10; public transport, women empowerment and women security follow were the other issues that mattered to the voters. In another interesting finding, the survey stated 73% of the respondents said people should not vote for criminal candidates, but 80% were willing to vote for those candidates because they felt the cases were not serious, 73% because the candidates were of their own caste or religion and 70% because they felt that the candidate had done good work, as stated by IE report.