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On July 8, 2013 while speaking at a seminar on Electoral Reforms in Thiruvananthapuram, the Vice - President of India, Mr. Hamid Ansari expressed his concern over the extremely low percentage of representativeness in our Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies by passing the following statement, 
"A perceptive observer of our electoral scene has rightly focused on what he calls the 'paradox' of a deepening representative democracy coexisting with a thinning of the very idea of representation"


Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch have conducted an analysis regarding the vote share and representativeness of the MLAs who got elected in the 2008 Assembly Elections in the five states of  Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. 

Highlights of the report are as below:

DEFINITION

  • Representativeness=(Total Votes Polled for Winner)/(Total No.of Registered Voters)
  • Vote Share=(Total Votes Polled for Winner)/(Total No.of Valid Votes Polled)

Delhi

Representativeness:

  1. 99% of the winners won with votes less than 40% of the registered voters.
  2. Dr. S.C.L. Gupta from Sangam Vihar constituency and Parvez Hashmi from Okhla constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate (14%). 

Vote Share:

  1. 47 winners out of 70 (67%), won with less than 50% of the votes polled. 
  2. Dr. S.C.L. Gupta from Sangam Vihar constituency won with the lowest vote share of 27% 
  3. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi, won with a vote share of 52% and representativeness of 29% from New Delhi constituency. 

Rajasthan

Representativeness:

  1. 98% of the winners won with votes less than 40% of the registered voters.
  2. Ramswaroop from Kotputli constituency and Anita from Nagar constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate (14%). 

Vote Share:

  1. 161 winners out of 200 (81%), won with less than 50% of the votes polled.
  2. Ramswaroop from Kotputli constituency and Anita from Nagar constituency won with the lowest vote share of 21%. 
  3. Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan won with 55% vote share and 31% representativeness from Sardarpura constituency.

Madhya Pradesh

Representativeness:

  1. 93% of the winners won with votes less than 40% of the registered voters.
  2. Bhanwar Raja Manavendra Singh from Maharajpur constituency and Ahirwar Ramdayal from Chandla constituency won with thelowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate (12%). 
  3. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh won with the highest representativeness of 45% from Budhni constituency. 

Vote Share:

  1. 186 winners out of 230 (81%), won with less than 50% of the votes polled.
  2. Bhanwar Raja Manavendra Singh from Maharajpur constituency won with the least vote share of 19%. 
  3. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh won with a vote share of 62% from Budhni constituency.

Chhattisgarh

Representativeness:

  1. 91% of the winners won with votes less than 40% of the registered voters.
  2. Mahesh Gagda from Bijapur constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate (13%). 

Vote Share:

  1. 72 winners out of 90 (80%), won with less than 50% of the votes polled.
  2. Ravi Shankar Tripathi from Bhatgaon constituency won with the lowest vote share of 28%.
  3. Raman Singh, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh won with the highest vote share of 59% and a representativeness of 47% from Rajnandgaon constituency.

Mizoram

Representativeness:

  1. 90% of the winners won with votes less than 40% of the registered voters.
  2. K. Liantlinga from Aizawl South-I constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate (26%). 

Vote Share:

  1. 37 winners out of 40 (93%), won with less than 50% of the votes polled.
  2. John Rotluangliana of Mamit constituency and K. Liantlinga from Aizawl South-I constituency won with the lowest vote share of 32%.
  3. Lalthanhawla, Chief Minister of Mizoram won with a vote share of 40% and a representativeness of 35% from Serchhip constituency and with a vote share of 35% and a representativeness of 29% from South Tuipui.

Representativeness: Summary of the 5 states 

The following table shows the percentage of representativeness in these five states:

State

Seats

Average Polling %

Total Votes Polled for Winners

Total No. of Registered Voters

Average Representativeness

Percentage of Winners with less than 40% Representativeness

Delhi

70

58%

28,04,587

1,07,22,979

26%

99%

Rajasthan

200

67%

1,02,52,404

3,62,68,878

28%

98%

Madhya Pradesh

230

70%

1,04,27,590

3,61,47,438

29%

93%

Chhattisgarh

90

70%

47,65,231

1,52,17,228

31%

91%

Mizoram

40

82%

2,00,527

6,11,584

33%

90%

Table 1: Representativeness of five states for assembly elections (2008)

Vote Share: Summary of the 5 states

The following table shows the percentage of average vote share in these five states:

State

Seats

Average Polling %

Total Votes Polled for Winners

Total Valid Votes

Average Vote Share

Percentage of Winners with less than 50% Vote Share

Delhi

70

58%

28,04,587

61,77,342

45%

67%

Rajasthan

200

67%

1,02,52,404

2,40,97,885

43%

81%

Madhya Pradesh

230

70%

1,04,27,590

2,52,23,229

41%

81%

Chhattisgarh

90

70%

47,65,231

1,07,39,965

44%

80%

Mizoram

40

82%

2,00,527

5,02,956

40%

93%

Table 2: Vote share of the five states in the assembly elections (2008)


Please find attached the Hindi and English versions of the report  ( English / Hindi )