In a NACDAOR survey, more than 58% of Dalit voters expressed their concern over unemployment as the biggest issue, while more than 27% did not trust the Election Commission.
Patna: More than 27.4% of Dalit voters in Bihar say they have “no trust” in the Election Commission of India (ECI). This has come to light in a new survey, released by the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations (NACDAOR) ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. The survey also revealed that more than 58% of Scheduled Caste (SC) voters in the state consider unemployment as the biggest election issue.
According to a report in The Hindu, the survey was conducted between June 10 and July 4 and a total of 18,581 Scheduled Caste voters from different parts of Bihar were polled. NACDAOR Chairman Ashok Bharti said that according to the Bihar caste survey conducted in 2022, 19.65% of the state’s population belongs to Scheduled Castes.
Fear of name deletion from voter list
During the survey itself, the Election Commission had started the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. Due to this, a new question was added in the middle of the survey – “Do you fear that your name may be deleted from the new voter list?” Of the approximately 8,500 people who answered this question, more than 71% said “yes”, while 23.4% said that they have no such fear. At the same time, a little more than 5% people did not give their opinion.
Lack of trust in the Election Commission
When the participants were asked if they think the Election Commission works in a fair manner, 27.4% said “no”, while 51% said “yes”. At the same time, 21% of the respondents said that they do not know about it.
A total of 11 questions were asked in this survey, which included – who is the favorite leader at the national and state level, how is the work of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s government, and who should be given the credit for the caste census, etc.
Narendra Modi is the most popular leader at the national level
The survey found that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most favorite national leader for 47.5% Dalit voters. 40.3% people liked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while 12% named other leaders.
Opinions were divided over the performance of the state government. While 48% of the respondents described the work of the Nitish Kumar government as “bad”, 45% considered it “good”.
Who should be credited for the caste census?
On the question “Who would you like to give the credit for the caste census?” 33.15% of the voters named Narendra Modi, 30.81% Rahul Gandhi, and 27.57% Tejashwi Yadav. At the same time, about 8% named other leaders.
“Survey by Dalits, for Dalits”
Talking about the process of the survey, Ashok Bharti said, “Many people conduct surveys on Scheduled Castes, but no one comes to the ground and talks to us. This survey has been done for Dalits, by Dalits.”
He said that NACDAOR had trained volunteers to interact with Scheduled Caste voters in 49 assembly constituencies of six regions of Bihar – Kosi, Mithila, Seemanchal, Bhojpur, Champaran and Magadh-Pataliputra.
Let us tell you that this survey was conducted in collaboration with political consultancy firm The Convergent Media. Earlier, NACDAOR had conducted a survey before the Delhi Assembly elections earlier this year.
Rajan Chaudhary
Courtesy : Hindi News