Price rise is the biggest worry in the mind of voters as India prepares to elect its 16th Lok Sabha. A pre-poll Lok Sabha election survey conducted by Zee News-Taleem, shows the common man on the street is fedup with the increasing rise in prices of essential commodities in the last few years. The ruling UPA government has been severely criticised in the last for having failed to control inflation. In spite of being led by an economist Prime Minister, this issue has continued to haunt the Congress party.
Apart from price rise, other key issues in the election are expected to be corruption and unemployment. The UPA government has faced a series of corruption scandals in last ten years including the infamous 2G scam and CWG scam. While Congress party has claimed to have tried its best to tackle the menace of corruption, the opposition led by BJP seems to have been successful in making this a poll issue. On the other hand, Congress’ pet issue of communalism doesn’t seem to be appealing much to the Indian electorate. Suffering from a strong wave of anti-incumbency, Congress has been trying hard to make the Gujarat riots an election issue but has failed so far. BJP on its part has been using 1984 anti-Sikh riots as a counter.
Basic amenities like road, electricity and water also feature in the list of election issues for voters. Gujarat Chief Minister and NDA Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi has been portraying himself as an advocate of development and using the ‘Gujarat’ Model to speak about the need to get basic amenities in place across the country.
|
Most important issue while voting
|
North
|
Central
|
East
|
West
|
South
|
Total
|
|
Price Rise
|
34.8
|
46.0
|
42.7
|
40.0
|
34.8
|
38.9
|
|
Economic Development
|
15.1
|
11.0
|
9.9
|
7.9
|
13.6
|
11.8
|
|
Road, electricity and water
|
10.6
|
8.6
|
14.6
|
9.9
|
13.1
|
11.5
|
|
Unemployment
|
12.3
|
12.4
|
13.9
|
14.8
|
10.2
|
12.8
|
|
Corruption
|
18.5
|
16.1
|
6.3
|
17.8
|
12.3
|
14.3
|
|
Communalism
|
0.9
|
0.2
|
0.6
|
1.0
|
2.0
|
1.0
|
|
Insecurity
|
0.9
|
0.8
|
6.2
|
1.3
|
2.4
|
2.4
|
|
Cannot say
|
6.9
|
4.9
|
5.8
|
7.2
|
11.6
|
7.3
|
|
Total
|
1678
|
1680
|
2878
|
2635
|
2397
|
13428
|
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