Election of State Assembly Held during February and March, 2022: Study with Reference to Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Voter participation in any election gives the base for analysis and accordingly its related mapping in a region become significant for outcome of the research which represent the region's level of political awareness and development. The present study examines the socio-cultural structure of voter turnout in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly election of 2022 which has been taken for study as a special reference. Election for five state assemblies have been conducted by the Election Commission of India concluded during month of February- March, 2022. In the present study, 18^th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly has been selected for making study due to the biggest electorate state in India and where the ruling party Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) UP’s first incumbent government to retain power after 1985. Elections in all five states for assemblies which include Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand were conducted in seven phases commencing from 10^th February and ended on 7^th March, 2022.

The study has focusedon voter turnout in UP which varies significantly across the region. It was the highest in the western region (approximately 63 percent), while it was the lowest in the eastern region (approximately 57.87 percent). With an increase in overall party vote share, the spatial distribution of the BJP and its pre-poll alliesSuheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party &Apna Dal votes becomes considerably important.First time, allexit polls indicated that the BJP has successfully grown its strength across all social classes in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP got 41.3 % of the total votes in this election, a minor increase from 39.4 % in 2017—and the first time since 1977 that a party got more than 40% of the vote in Uttar Pradesh's state assembly elections. During this election, voters in UP have casted their votes mainly considering issued related with governance, development, security and less consideration of identity politics (castes, community, and religion).The presentstudy has used all official data related with election of UP to substantiate view- points available on the official websites of election commission as well as secondary data sources (Assembly Election 2022).