AHMEDABAD: What the voters wanted and how the government delivered on those issues? The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) carried out a pan-India survey of 534 Lok Sabha constituencies out of 543 where an average of 500 voters each constituency were selected for the survey. From Gujarat, the survey included 13,312 responses — 512 for each of the 26 constituencies.

According to the report, better employment opportunity was termed as the most important issue with 42.68%, followed by drinking water(37.12%) and better healthcare (30.23%) in Gujarat. For the urban areas, traffic congestion (49%) topped the list along with noise pollution (47%) and employment (45%). Water for agriculture (46%) was the most important issue for rural areas along with agricultural loan (45%) and subsidy for seed/fertilizer (44%).

The report mentioned that the voters were asked to rate the government performance on a scale of 5. The score for government hovered around 2.5 (average) for majority of the categories. Nationally, voters assigned employment, access to healthcare, drinking water, roads, public transport, water for agriculture, loan availability and better price for farm produce more than 25% weight. In all the categories, the government score ranged from 2.15 to 2.58, average to below average.

Constituency-wise, Ahmedabad West identified noise pollution (48.18%), better healthcare (48.07%), drinking water (48%) as issues whereas Ahmedabad East wanted agricultural subsidies for seeds/fertilizer (50.6%), reduction in traffic congestion (49.89%) and water for agriculture (48.77%). Likewise, cities like Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara identified drinking water, employment, traffic congestion, noise pollution and access to healthcare as primary issues — all of which had below average score for the present government, said ADR officials.