The “local” was of utmost importance in the decision-making of voters in the Assembly elections, according to a special post-poll survey conducted by the Lokniti-CSDS for The Hindu.
Each of the surveyed States had specific local variables that swayed and determined the choices of the respondents. Clearly, the voters were determining their electoral choice for State and national elections distinctly.
As to the question whether any particular national issue made an impact at all, the surveyors found that one issue was particularly resonant across States — the Citizenship Amendment Act.
In all four States, the opposition to the CAA was higher than support for it.
Beginning today and over this week, The Hindu will publish a series of articles explaining the verdicts in the four States — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam — and the Union Territory of Puducherry that went to the polls in March-April 2021.
Also read: What was the methodology used?
The team which led this study included Sanjay Kumar, former Director, CSDS and Co-Director, Lokniti; Suhas Palshikar, Co-Director, Lokniti; and Sandeep Shastri, National Coordinator, Lokniti.
Key issues
These data-based articles will detail the key issues that mattered to the electorate, the specificities in each of the States (and Union Territory) that had a bearing on the results, and what were the variables that determined the survey respondents’ choices.
The articles will also be carried along with a methodological note on how the survey was conducted, the sample size for each State and the method used to weight responses based on the composition of the voters.