EXCEPT IN the 1967 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections, people of Chandigarh went with the national wave in all the 13 Lok Sabha polls held till now, a study by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC) has found. But while voters in the sectors were influenced by the national narrative, residents of colonies were swayed by local issues. A survey conducted on 200 subjects found that the slum population decided its vote on the basis of issues pertaining to their daily life. The urban population in Chandigarh is 97.25 per cent and the rural population is only 2.75 per cent (2011 census) but the rural and slum votes together make up for around 50 per cent of the total votes in the city. The analysis has stated that 92.19 per cent of the urban electorate said that they cast their vote on national issues while 70.59% of the slum respondents said that they cast their vote on issues of local significance. Advertising The study attributes the urban residents’ propensity to vote along the national lines to the fact that Chandigarh is a UT without its legislature. “An analysis of the elections in Chandigarh demonstrates that except for the elections in 1967 and 1999, the constituency of Chandigarh has always followed the national wave…A glance at the prominent issues in every election has shown that initially the issue regarding the status of Chandigarh, whether it should be a part of Punjab or Haryana, took primacy but the residents were in favour of status quo. That is why there is very less influence of the politics of the adjoining states of Punjab and Haryana on Chandigarh,” the analysis stated. The data was collected through field study based on cluster sampling technique wherein Chandigarh was divided into three clusters, that is urban, rural and slums/colonies. Out of these clusters, a sample of 200 subjects had been collected through random sampling technique. The Aam Aadmi Party performed very well in urban areas of Chandigarh mainly due to the pro-AAP wave in Delhi. AAP fetched 28.37 per cent votes in the urban areas of Chandigarh, which is more than the number of votes received by the Congress (25.85 per cent) in urban areas. Although Chandigarh is considered an urban parliamentary constituency, the votes from rural areas and slums have been decisive in the city as they constitute almost 50 per cent of the total votes. All MPs highly qualified Advertising All the MPs elected from Chandigarh were highly qualified professionals, most of them with a law degree. The constituency of Chandigarh is one of the most literate Lok Sabha constituencies in India. Religion and caste have never played any role in Lok Sabha elections in the city. All leaders from the UT constituency belong to the dominant Hindu religion in the area. The various factors which helped the BJP win the Chandigarh parliamentary constituency in 2014 elections include the anti-incumbency factor. Chandigarh was one of those seats where the Congress had been in power for the last three consecutive terms. Also, the traditional vote bank of Congress in villages and colonies was appropriated by the Aam Aadmi Party. And the nationwide ‘Modi wave’ prevailed in Chandigarh as well.

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