A Critical Appraisal on Electoral Behaviour in India

Being an integral part of electoral democracy voters play a vital role in making government. Representative democracy cannot sustain without electorates. Voters or electorates determine present and future of the ruling system of most of democratic countries in the world. But its behaviour is vary as per socio economic and political ecology of respective country. Existing political culture and socialisation process determine voting behaviour. Voters as an integral part of greater social domain are highly influenced by its belongingness to respective caste, community, religion and other factors. Their role in election reflects manner and behaviour in the context of social environment . India as the largest parliamentary democracy in the world represents plural and diverse structure of social domain. Voters here are more concerned with their affiliation to respective social and economic identity. In many times voters are hardly independent as autonomous entity in electing their representatives. Their political behaviour is highly influenced by external forces. It constitutes voting behaviour in India. The present study is a humble attempt to make an estimate on voting behaviour in India.