ADR-Daksh Survey Report for Haryana region
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Daksh have 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 Haryana, 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 10 MPs from Haryana is 5.77 on a scale of 10. Only oneMP from Haryana performed above average (Average Value of Performance = 6.67 points).
The highest scoring MP from Haryana is Deepender Singh of INC from Rohtak constituency with 6.77 points (Above average).The lowest scoring MP from Haryana is Kuldeep Bishnoi of HJC (BL) from Hisar constituencywith 4.95 rating.
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.
Only one MP from Haryana -- Deepender Singh – has exceeded the expectation of the people. Voters’ expectation from Deepender Singh was 6.53 but he performed 6.77 on a scale of 10.
Please see the Table I for individual performance rating of all the MPs from Haryana.(The column in Green shows people’s expectations from their MPs on a scale of 10)
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 Haryana, Better Employment Opportunities, Better Electric Supply and Better Roads 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 Haryanawhich they want their MPs to focus on, Table III for top 10 issues in rural areas of the state andTable IVto 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 | 7-Rohtak | INC | Deepender Singh | 6.77 | 6.53 | Above Average |
| 2 | 1-Ambala | INC | Selja | 6.47 | 7.09 | Below Average |
| 3 | 2-Kurukshetra | INC | Naveen Jindal | 6.02 | 6.63 | Below Average |
| 4 | 8-Bhiwani-Mahendragarh | INC | Shruti Choudhry | 5.86 | 7.02 | Below Average |
| 5 | 6-Sonipat | INC | Jitender Singh | 5.83 | 7.76 | Below Average |
| 6 | 10-Faridabad | INC | Avtar Singh Bhadana | 5.61 | 6.56 | Below Average |
| 7 | 3-Sirsa | INC | Ashok Tanwar | 5.51 | 6.65 | Below Average |
| 8 | 5-Karnal | INC | Arvind Kumar Sharma | 5.38 | 7.97 | Below Average |
| 9 | 9-Gurgaon | INC | Inderjit Singh | 5.29 | 6.79 | Below Average |
| 10 | 4-Hisar | HJC(BL) | Kuldeep Bishnoi | 4.95 | 6.99 | Below Average |
| Haryana | Total | 5.77 | 7.00 | Below Average |
Table –I (B)
Overall Top 11 issues for Haryana:
Table -II
Table -III
Top 10 issues in Rural areas:
Top 10 issues in Urban areas:
Table -IV
The voting behavior of people in Haryana
The survey tried to identify the important factors that people take into account before voting for a particular Candidate. Issue like whether the Candidatematters the most or hisPolitical 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 Haryana gave more importance to the party of the candidate than the candidate himself. 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 and Table VI 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
| State | Haryana |
| Why people vote: | |
| Party | 6.49 |
| Candidate | 8.10 |
| PM Candidate | 5.29 |
| Caste/religion | 4.23 |
| Distribution of 'gifts' | 3.79 |
| Yes/No "knowledge and opinion questions": Do you know | |
| Do you know "Gifts" for vote is illegal | 83.35% |
| Do you know Candidates distributing 'gifts' | 26.96% |
| Do you know You can get candidate criminal record | 36.86% |
| Why do people vote for those with serious criminal records: | |
| Candidate does good work | 55.35% |
| Powerful Candidate | 22.82% |
| Spending in elections | 36.55% |
| Cases not serious | 29.33% |
| Voters don’t know | 33.51% |
| Caste or religion | 24.81% |
Table -VI
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 84 per cent of people in Haryana are well aware that distribution of gifts and money by candidates ahead of elections is illegal. However, only 37 per cent people knew that they can get an information about the criminal records of their candidates easily.
What is also observed that over 50 per cent people in Haryana ignore the criminal record of their candidates because they feel such candidates have done “good work.”Whereas around 25 per cent people vote for candidates facing criminal charges because they were of their own caste/ religion.
Please see Table VII and Table VIII to know what percentage of people are aware of the use of money and muscle power in elections.
Table -VII
Table -VIII
