How Andhra Voters decide who to vote?

I was looking at this week's Time Magazine that attempt to unravel a sense of mystery behind how an American voter decide to vote.  There is a story of how science of survival infuse 'racism', portraits of 4 different types of voters and included an in depth review  of recent polls along with historical perspectives.

After reading all 4 featured sections, next thing I thought about it how much do we know about our own Andhra voters on how they vote and why they vote.

The POLITICAL Perspective to be launched on 1st Nov

While our new web portal, The POLITICAL Perspective (now in private beta, launching on 1st of November, marking the AP State Formation Day) is attempting to bring you up close with various statistics of previous elections, the amount of social and political research available is quite limited, that could explain how Andhra voters decide who to vote.

So, I tried to become myself a social scientist, quickly framed a few questions and sent to all my friends across the world (thanks to Google, that allow building online Forms so easy with Google Spreadsheets). And I am totally surprised by those responses. Most answers are overwhelmingly distributed while 'Caste' plays a very significant role in many decisions for most.

The First Portion of Questionaire

I will write more in detail about each question and responses as part of 'Prakriti' reports at  The POLITICAL Perspective, here is a quick summary:

  1. What is ONE important thing you consider to decide who to vote?
    1. 69%  based on Chief Ministerial candidate
    2. 48% based on Party previous Performance
    3. 28% based on local MLA
    4. 12% based on Election Manifesto
  2. 92% said, 'caste' is an important deciding factor in every aspect of the decision at both local and state level.
  3. What is ONE important thing you think OTHERS consider while deciding who to vote?
    1. 54% based on local MLA
    2. 42% based on party
    3. 39% based on CM candidate
    4. 1% based on Election manifesto
  4. What do you think that DECIDE a WIN or LOSS in an election at a Constituency level?
    1. 89% Money spent the night before election
    2. 64% Caste and Popularity of Local MLA
    3. 23% Election Campaign
  5. What do you think that DECIDE a WIN or LOSS at a whole STATE level
    1. 94% Chief Ministerial Candidate
    2. 68% Anti-Incumbency Factor
    3. 59% News
  6. Which Party do you think will WIN in 2009 Elections?
  1. 68% TDP + TRS Alliance
  2. 39% Praja Rajyam
  3. 36% Congress

Why not Praja Rajyam?

I was quite surprised to see 'Praja Rajyam' second to TDP +TRS. I asked a few to clarify why they chose TDP+TRS rather than much talked about Chiranjeevi's party. No one did give me a convincing answer, but they said, the same reason why Praja Rajyam is desperately trying to get in alliance with somebody, like CPI(M), even after much hyped successful first week of campaign in north Andhra.

A better Perspective

The above results can be put in right perspective once I can share the demographics (age, caste, education, profession, location etc) of those people already responded.  As I mentioned earlier, I will include these details as part of the report that will be published on The POLITICAL Perspective.

What do you think?

If you read this far, I am pretty sure, you want to share your views on those questions.  While the survey will be open to all once the portal is ready, you can send your responses in email along with your age, caste(if you like to mention), education, profession and your location. Your email addresses will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone.

Send your responses to Prakriti at SwarnaAndhra01 dot com with subject line ' Why I vote'. As a matter of fact, we are super thrilled to know YOUR questions too, if you have to ask someone. We will post to the audience of The POLITICAL Perspective, once it goes live on 1st of November, 2008.

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