ADR-Daksh Survey Report for Bihar region
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has conducted the largest ever survey in India with over 250,000 respondents in 530 Lok Sabha constituencies. The larger purpose of the survey is to highlight voter priorities so that elections in future are fought on voter issues, and more importantly, the manifestos of future Governments reflect voter priorities.
In Bihar, the purpose of the survey was multi-fold:
- To Rate MPs from the state on a Scale of 10
- To know Top 10 pressing issues for voters in the state
- To know voting behaviour of people
- To know what is the role of caste, religion, crime and money power in elections
The findings of the survey:
Rating of MPs : The voters have rated the performance of MPs as Good, Average or Bad on governance issues like employment, water, electricity, roads, food, education and health.
The average performance rating of 40 MPs from Bihar is 5.07 on a scale of 10. Only two MPs from Bihar -- Om Prakash Yadav and Meira Kumar - have performed above average (Average Value of Performance = 6.67 point).
The highest scoring MP from Bihar is Independent MP Om Prakash Yadav from Siwan constituency with 7.56points (Above average), followed by Meira Kumar of Congress from Sasaram constituency with 6.75 points (Above average). The lowest scoring MP from Biharis Ram Sundar Das of JD (U) from Hajipur constituency with 3.79points.
The survey has also tried to identify the gap between voters' expectations on governance issues and performance of MPs on those issues. If the expectation of voters score is more than the performance score it means voters are unhappy. And if expectation of voters score is less than the performance of MPs then voters are actually happy.
Two of the MPs from Bihar have exceeded the expectation of the people.
Please see the Table I (A) for individual performance rating of all the MPs from Bihar. (The 'Performance of MP' column is the actual rating of the MPsand the 'Expectations of Voters on Governance issues' column shows people's expectations from their MPs on a scale of 10)Table I (B) is the graphical representation of 'Performance Ratings of MPs by Voters on Important Issues'.
Top 10 pressing issues for voters. To identify what are voter priorities in terms of governance issues like water, electricity, roads, food, education and health, a list of 30 items was given to voters and they were asked to rate whether a particular issue was High, Medium, or Low. This list was comprehensive as less than 5% said that there were "other issues" beyond the list.
In Bihar, Better electric supply, Better roads and Better hospitals / Primary Healthcare Centres are the Top 3 issues about which people are most concerned.
Please seeTable II to know the overall 10 most pressing issues for the people of Bihar which they want their MPs to focus on, Table III for top 10 issues in rural areas of the state andTable IV to know top 10 issues in urban areas.
Table –I (A)
| S.No. | Name of the Constituency | Party | Name of MP | Performance of MP | Expectations of voters on Governance Issues | Average Performance |
| 1 | 18-Siwan | IND | Om Prakash Yadav | 7.56 | 5.37 | Above Average |
| 2 | 34-Sasaram | INC | Meira Kumar | 6.75 | 5.43 | Above Average |
| 3 | 6-Madhubani | BJP | Hukmadeo Narayan Yadav | 6.25 | 8.50 | Below Average |
| 4 | 5-Sitamarhi | JD(U) | Arjun Roy | 5.93 | 9.29 | Below Average |
| 5 | 1-Valmiki Nagar | JD(U) | Baidyanath Prasad Mahto | 5.54 | 7.78 | Below Average |
| 6 | 38-Gaya | BJP | Hari Manjhi | 5.54 | 8.43 | Below Average |
| 7 | 31-Pataliputra | JD(U) | Ranjan Prasad Yadav | 5.48 | 9.07 | Below Average |
| 8 | 28-Munger | JD(U) | Rajiv Ranjan Singh Alias Lalan Singh | 5.44 | 7.90 | Below Average |
| 9 | 2-Paschim Champaran | BJP | Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal | 5.43 | 8.11 | Below Average |
| 10 | 16-Vaishali | RJD | Raghuvansh Prasad Singh | 5.37 | 9.45 | Below Average |
| 11 | 17-Gopalganj | JD(U) | Purnmasi Ram | 5.36 | 7.63 | Below Average |
| 12 | 3-Purvi Champaran | BJP | Radha Mohan Singh | 5.34 | 8.20 | Below Average |
| 13 | 33-Buxar | RJD | Jagada Nand Singh | 5.20 | 8.34 | Below Average |
| 14 | 13-Madhepura | JD(U) | Sharad Yadav | 5.19 | 7.53 | Below Average |
| 15 | 25-Khagaria | JD(U) | Dinesh Chandra Yadav | 5.16 | 8.14 | Below Average |
| 16 | 30-Patna Sahib | BJP | Shatrughan Sinha | 5.13 | 8.25 | Below Average |
| 17 | 40-Jamui | JD(U) | Bhudeo Choudhary | 5.10 | 8.25 | Below Average |
| 18 | 4-Sheohar | BJP | Rama Dev | 5.10 | 9.79 | Below Average |
| 19 | 29-Nalanda | JD(U) | Kaushalendra Kumar | 5.08 | 8.39 | Below Average |
| 20 | 27-Banka | IND | PUTUL KUMARI | 5.08 | 9.73 | Below Average |
| 21 | 8-Supaul | JD(U) | Vishwa Mohan Kumar | 5.05 | 7.21 | Below Average |
| 22 | 36-Jahanabad | JD(U) | Jagdish Sharma | 5.05 | 9.89 | Below Average |
| 23 | 39-Nawada | BJP | Bhola Singh | 5.02 | 8.48 | Below Average |
| 24 | 7-Jhanjharpur | JD(U) | Mangani Lal Mandal | 5.01 | 9.21 | Below Average |
| 25 | 12-Purnia | BJP | Uday Singh Alias Pappu Singh | 5.01 | 8.48 | Below Average |
| 26 | 19-Maharajganj | RJD | Prabhunath Singh | 4.98 | 7.72 | Below Average |
| 27 | 10-Kishanganj | INC | Mohammad Asrarul Haque | 4.92 | 8.33 | Below Average |
| 28 | 20-Saran | RJD | Lalu Prasad | 4.80 | 7.27 | Below Average |
| 29 | 15-Muzaffarpur | JD(U) | Captain Jai Narayan Prasad Nishad | 4.75 | 9.28 | Below Average |
| 30 | 22-Ujiarpur | JD(U) | Aswamedh Dev | 4.70 | 9.01 | Below Average |
| 31 | 23-Samastipur | JD(U) | Maheshwar Hazari | 4.70 | 9.18 | Below Average |
| 32 | 14-Darbhanga | BJP | Kirti Azad | 4.68 | 9.23 | Below Average |
| 33 | 32-Arrah | JD(U) | Meena Singh | 4.57 | 8.68 | Below Average |
| 34 | 11-Katihar | BJP | Nikhil Kumar Choudhary | 4.56 | 9.17 | Below Average |
| 35 | 37-Aurangabad | JD(U) | Sushil Kumar Singh | 4.26 | 7.72 | Below Average |
| 36 | 35-Karakat | JD(U) | Mahabali Singh | 4.22 | 8.26 | Below Average |
| 37 | 9-Araria | BJP | Pradeep Kumar Singh | 4.00 | 7.28 | Below Average |
| 38 | 26-Bhagalpur | BJP | Syed Shahnawaz Hussain | 3.98 | 9.22 | Below Average |
| 39 | 24-Begusarai | JD(U) | Dr. Monazir Hassan | 3.88 | 9.33 | Below Average |
| 40 | 21-Hajipur | JD(U) | Ram Sundar Das | 3.79 | 9.78 | Below Average |
| Bihar | 5.07 | 8.41 |
Table –I (B)
Overall Top 10 issues for Bihar:
Table –II
| 1 | Better electric supply | 8.60 |
| 2 | Better roads | 8.59 |
| 3 | Better hospitals / Primary Healthcare Centres | 8.59 |
| 4 | Drinking water | 8.54 |
| 5 | Better schools | 8.54 |
| 6 | Subsidized food distribution | 8.53 |
| 7 | Better public transport | 8.50 |
| 8 | Better employment opportunities | 8.49 |
| 9 | Better Law and Order / Policing | 8.49 |
| 10 | Strong Defence/Military | 8.48 |
Top 10 issues in Rural areas:
Table –III
| 1 | Better electric supply | 8.64 |
| 2 | Better roads | 8.64 |
| 3 | Better hospitals / Primary Healthcare Centres | 8.61 |
| 4 | Drinking water | 8.58 |
| 5 | Better schools | 8.56 |
| 6 | Subsidized food distribution | 8.54 |
| 7 | Better public transport | 8.53 |
| 8 | Strong Defence/Military | 8.53 |
| 9 | Better Law and Order / Policing | 8.53 |
| 10 | Better employment opportunities | 8.52 |
Top 10 issues in Urban areas:
Table –IV
| 1 | Subsidized food distribution | 8.38 |
| 2 | Better schools | 8.37 |
| 3 | Better hospitals / Primary Healthcare Centres | 8.35 |
| 4 | Eradication of Corruption | 8.35 |
| 5 | Better employment opportunities | 8.27 |
| 6 | Better public transport | 8.24 |
| 7 | Better electric supply | 8.22 |
| 8 | Drinking water | 8.17 |
| 9 | Trustworthiness of MP | 8.16 |
| 10 | Better roads | 8.14 |
The voting behavior of people in Bihar
The survey tried to identify the important factors that people take into account before voting for a particular Candidate. Issue like whether the Candidate matters the most or his Political Party or other issues like caste/religion of the Candidate, PM Candidate of the party, and Distribution of 'gifts' etc. are more important?
People in Bihar gave moreimportance to the candidate himself than the party of the candidate. The PM candidate of the party and Caste/Religion of the candidate were the 3rd and 4th most important factors which voters consider before voting.
Please see the Table V to find out important factors which people consider before voting for a candidate and what weightage (points) they give to each of the factors:
Table –V (A)
| State | Bihar |
| Why people vote: | |
| Party | 5.73 |
| Candidate | 7.74 |
| PM Candidate | 5.68 |
| Caste/religion | 4.30 |
| Distribution of 'gifts' | 3.95 |
| Yes/No "knowledge and opinion questions": Do you know | |
| Do you know "Gifts" for vote is illegal | 72.90% |
| Do you know Candidates distributing 'gifts' | 16.18% |
| Do you know You can get candidate criminal record | 38.90% |
| Why do people vote for those with serious criminal records: | |
| Candidate does good work | 67.63% |
| Powerful Candidate | 28.63% |
| Spending in elections | 32.53% |
| Cases not serious | 33.79% |
| Voters don't know | 29.85% |
| Caste or religion | 19.69% |
Table –V (B)
Role of caste, religion, crime and money power in elections. The survey also tried to identify if voters are aware of the use of money and muscle power in elections. Specifically, whether they are aware of distribution of gifts and money by candidates before polls or they have the knowledge about the criminal record of their candidates.
It was observed that nearly 73 per cent of people in Bihar is well aware that distribution of gifts and money by candidates ahead of elections is illegal. However, only 39 per cent of people knew that they can get an information about the criminal records of their candidates easily.
What is also observed that over 68 per cent people in Bihar ignore the criminal record of their candidates because they feel such candidates have done "good work."Whereas around 20 per cent of people in Bihar vote for candidates facing criminal charges because they were of their own caste/ religion. Around 33 per cent people also vote for criminal candidates because they spend a lot during the elections.
Please see Table VI to know what percentage of people are aware of the use of money and muscle power in elections.
Table –VI (A)
Table –VI (B)
