Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Dynamic of electoral behaviour in Uttar Pradesh: a study of lok sabha elections from 2009 to 2019

  • Published:
GeoJournal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Uttar Pradesh is one of the significant political spaces that offers a genuine academic analysis to Electoral Geography students. This political space interestingly presents the electoral dynamics rooted in many socio-cultural variants and has a more significant bearing on the electoral behavior of the masses in Uttar Pradesh. In this respect, the present paper organizes its conceptual design to correlate the electoral behavior of voters of Uttar Pradesh with the effects of the elements of culture and social structure. Primarily, this paper analyses the factors that control electoral behavior. It includes demographic politics, religion, cultural symbols, language, social stratification (Caste and sub-caste), rural–urban divide, and identity politics. These are the dominant factors in the social space of Uttar Pradesh that essentially controls the electoral behavior. The tendencies involved in the recent elections are observed in terms of electoral mobilization by political parties in Uttar Pradesh. The spatiality of populism, media campaign, caste alliance, religious sentiments, nationalistic issues, and leadership traits is the emerging trends utilized in the multiparty political democracy in Uttar Pradesh. Hence, the article is an ethnographic exploration of the relations between politics and social stratification, religion, and caste/community in Uttar Pradesh. This paper aims to examine the implications of cultural mobilization on these lines. Further, it observes how power has been transferred from parties that claim to favor social justice and subaltern politics like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party to Bhartiya Janta Party. This paper is generally based on secondary and archival sources; census data and electoral data are extracted from Newspaper reports, census, and the Election Commission of India. Primarily, It is a qualitative study where descriptive and analytical methods are applied. Arguments are framed through case studies and electoral data reports. The quantitative aspect of the analysis is represented through diagrams, graphs, and election statistics. The study shows that the evolution of the politics of Uttar Pradesh shows a visible sign of polarization mainly on the communal lines. Issues relating to the development of the region and its people are often sidelined in the face of communal division. Other factors like the ideology of the political party, local issues, caste, gender, and personality of the candidate intervene but with marginal effect.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig.9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agnew, J., & Muscarà, L. (2012). Making political geography. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agnew, J. A. (2014). Place and politics: The geographical mediation of state and society. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, H. (2020). Politics of constitutionalism: Muslims as a minority. In Minorities and populism—Critical perspectives from South Asia and Europe (pp. 95–106). Springer.

  • Alam, M. S., & Ahmed, H. (2017). Place, politics and voting: Lok Sabha election 2014. In Electoral politics in India (pp. 230–240). Routledge India.

  • Albarracín, J. (2018). Criminalized electoral politics in Brazilian urban peripheries. Crime, Law and Social Change, 69(4), 553–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arulampalam, W., Dasgupta, S., Dhillon, A., & Dutta, B. (2009). Electoral goals and center-state transfers: A theoretical model and empirical evidence from India. Journal of Development Economics, 88(1), 103–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asmer Beg, M. (2017). The 2014 parliamentary elections in India: A study of the voting preferences of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. The Round Table, 106(5), 567–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayyangar, S., & Jacob, S. (2015). Question hour activity and party behaviour in India. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 21(2), 232–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, B., & Kreiss, D. (2019). Platform transience: Changes in Facebook’s policies, procedures, and affordances in global electoral politics. Internet Policy Review, 8(4), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartels, L. M. (2010). The study of electoral behavior. In The Oxford handbook of American elections and political behavior, pp. 239–261.

  • Biswas, F. (2022). Electoral patterns and voting behavior of Bihar in Assembly elections from 2010 to 2020: A spatial analysis. GeoJournal, 1, 1–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biswas, F., & Mondal, N. A. (2018). Voting behavior of different socio-economic groups: A case study in Tehatta of Nadia district. West Bengal, 6(10), 1906–1913.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biswas, F., & Mondal, N. A. (2019). Voters, significant issues and political party: A case study of Nadia district of West Bengal. Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(1), 15–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biswas, F., Khan, N., & Ahamed, M. F. (2021). A study of electoral dynamic and voting behavior from 2004 to 2019 in Lok Sabha elections of West Bengal. GeoJournal, 25, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boykoff, M. T. (2008). The cultural politics of climate change discourse in U.K. tabloids. Political Geography, 27(5), 549–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brass, P. R. (2005). Language, religion and politics in North India. iUniverse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, T. (2006). Wars of position: The cultural politics of left and right. Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chacko, P. (2020). Gender and authoritarian populism: Empowerment, protection, and the politics of resentful aspiration in India. Critical Asian Studies, 52(2), 204–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chacko, P., & Mayer, P. (2014). The Modi lahar (wave) in the 2014 Indian national election: A critical realignment? Australian Journal of Political Science, 49(3), 518–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarty, B., & Pandey, R. K. (2008). Indian government and politics. SAGE Publications India.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chandra, K. (2009). Why voters in patronage democracies split their tickets: Strategic voting for ethnic parties. Electoral Studies, 28(1), 21–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chhibber, P., Jensenius, F. R., & Suryanarayan, P. (2014). Party organization and party proliferation in India. Party Politics, 20(4), 489–505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choudhary, B. K., Singh, A. K., & Das, D. (Eds.). (2020). City, space and politics in the global South. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dachs, H. (2017). Regional elections in Austria from 1986 to 2006. In The changing Austrian voter (pp. 91–103). Routledge.

  • Debos, M. (2021). Biometrics and the disciplining of democracy: Technology, electoral politics, and liberal interventionism in Chad. Democratization, 28(8), 1406–1422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deo, N. (2012). Running from elections: Indian feminism and electoral politics. India Review, 11(1), 46–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devika, J., & Thampi, B. V. (2011). Mobility towards work and politics for women in Kerala state, India: A view from the histories of gender and space. Modern Asian Studies, 45(5), 1147–1175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, E. (2015). Performance and cultural politics. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Doron, A., & Raja, I. (2015). The cultural politics of shit: Class, gender and public space in India. Postcolonial Studies, 18(2), 189–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duggan, L. (2012). The twilight of equality? Neoliberalism, cultural politics, and the attack on democracy. Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutta, S. (2012). Power, patronage and politics: A study of two panchayat elections in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 35(2), 329–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elff, M. (2009). Social divisions, party positions, and electoral behaviour. Electoral Studies, 28(2), 297–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farooqui, A. (2020). Political representation of a minority: Muslim representation in contemporary India. India Review, 19(2), 153–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Govinda, R. (2008). Re-inventing Dalit women’s identity? Dynamics of social activism and electoral politics in rural north India. Contemporary South Asia, 16(4), 427–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadiz, V. R., & Chryssogelos, A. (2017). Populism in world politics: A comparative cross-regional perspective. International Political Science Review, 38(4), 399–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harriss, J. (2015). Hindu nationalism in action: The Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian Politics. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 38(4), 712–718.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harriss, J., Sinha, A., Wyatt, A., & Singh, S. (2015). Indian political studies: In search of distinctiveness. Pacific Affairs, 88(1), 135–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haynes, J. (Ed.). (2020). Politics of religion: A survey. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath, O. (2020). Communal realignment and support for the BJP, 2009–2019. Contemporary South Asia, 28(2), 195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heath, O., & Kumar, S. (2012). Why did Dalits desert the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh? Economic and Political Weekly, 1, 41–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • INDIA, P. (2011). Census of India 2011 provisional population totals. Office of the registrar general and Census commissioner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffrelot, C. (2015). The modi-centric BJP 2014 election campaign: New techniques and old tactics. Contemporary South Asia, 23(2), 151–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaffrelot, C., & Kumar, S. (2015). The impact of urbanization on the electoral results of the 2014 Indian elections: With special reference to the BJP vote. Studies in Indian Politics, 3(1), 39–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaffrelot, C., & Verniers, G. (2020). A new party system or a new political system? Contemporary South Asia, 28(2), 141–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R. (2005). Anglo-American electoral geography: Same roots and same goals, but different means and ends? The Professional Geographer, 57(4), 580–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R., Shelley, F. M., & Taylor, P. J. (Eds.). (2014). Developments in electoral geography. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R., Manley, D., Jones, K., & Rohla, R. (2020). The geographical polarization of the American electorate: A country of increasing electoral landslides? GeoJournal, 85(1), 187–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, M., Jones, R., Woods, M., Whitehead, M., Dixon, D., & Hannah, M. (2014). An introduction to political geography: Space, place and politics. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kaur, A. (2012). Issues of reform in electoral politics of India: An analytical. The Indian Journal of Political Science, 1, 167–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M. S. (2018). Electoral behaviour in Bangladesh: 1991–2008 (No. Ph.D). Deakin University.

  • Kumar, S. (2020). Verdict 2019: The expanded support base of the Bharatiya janata party. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, 5(1), 6–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lal, D., Ojha, A., & Sabharwal, N. S. (2015). Issues of under-representation: Mapping women in indian politics. Journal of South Asian Studies, 3(1), 93–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Low, S., & Smith, N. (Eds.). (2013). The politics of public space. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMillan, A. (2012). The election commission of India and the regulation and administration of electoral politics. Election Law Journal, 11(2), 187–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michelutti, L. (2020). The vernacularisation of democracy: Politics, caste and religion in India. Taylor & Francis.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Michelutti, L., & Heath, O. (2013). The politics of entitlement: Affirmative action and strategic voting in Uttar Pradesh, India. Focaal, 2013(65), 56–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitra, A., & Ray, D. (2019). Hindu-Muslim violence in India: A postscript from the twenty-first century. In Advances in the economics of religion (pp. 229–248). Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Nielsen, K. B. (2011). In search of development: Muslims and electoral politics in an Indian State. In Forum for development studies (Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 345–370). Routledge.

  • Palshikar, S., Kumar, S., & Lodha, S. (Eds.). (2017). Electoral politics in India: The resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata party. Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pye, M. W., & Pye, L. W. (2009). Asian power and politics: The cultural dimensions of authority. Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajadesingan, A., Panda, A., & Pal, J. (2020). Leader or party? Personalization in twitter political campaigns during the 2019 Indian Elections. In International conference on social media and society, pp. 174–183.

  • Ranco, D. (2007). The ecological Indian and the politics of representation. Native Americans and the Environment: Perspectives on the Ecological Indian, 1, 32–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehman, M. (Ed.). (2018). Rise of saffron power: reflections on Indian politics. Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sardesai, R. (2015). The election that changed India. Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, A. (2015). A shift from identity politics in the 2014 India election: the BJP towards moderation. ElEctIon, 15

  • Singh, R. L. (1971). India; a regional geography.

  • Sinha, A. (2016). Why has development become a political issues in Indian politics. Brown Journal of World Affair, 23, 189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swaminathan, S., & Palshikar, S. (Eds.). (2020). Politics and society between elections: Public opinion in India’s States. Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaishnav, M. (2019). The BJP in power: Indian democracy and religious nationalism. Carnegie endowment for international peace. Retrieved from https://carnegieendowment.org/files/BJP_In_Power_final. June, 18, 2020.

  • Vertovec, S. (2011). The cultural politics of nation and migration. Annual Review of Anthropology, 40, 241–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yadav, Y., & Palshikar, S. (2009). Principal state level contests and derivative national choices: Electoral trends in 2004–09. Economic and Political Weekly, 5, 55–62.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study would not have been possible without the cooperation and advice of my respected two of our best seniors and Dr. Ashis Kumar Parshari, Dr. Rustom Ali, Dr. Mainul SK. Finally, I thank all the members and respondents of the political parties and the Election Commission of India, CSDS, for valuable information. The author also acknowledges the financial assistance provided by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to carry out the current research work.

Funding

No fund was received from any sources.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senior Research Fellow, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., 202002, India

    Firoj Biswas, Nizamuddin Khan, Mohd Firoz Ahamed & Mostafijur Rahaman

Authors
  1. Firoj Biswas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nizamuddin Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mohd Firoz Ahamed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mostafijur Rahaman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Firoj Biswas.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The present study ensures objectivity and transparency are followed in this research and acknowledges ethical and professional behavior principles. The current research confirms that: Therefore, for this research, compliance with ethical standards is not applicable.

Human or animal rights

Human Participants or Animals were not engaged or involved in the present research.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Biswas, F., Khan, N., Ahamed, M.F. et al. Dynamic of electoral behaviour in Uttar Pradesh: a study of lok sabha elections from 2009 to 2019. GeoJournal 88, 1317–1340 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10685-6

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10685-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation