The dismal story of India's vote share

A mere 50 per cent! That’s the average vote share that chief ministers of poll-bound Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram received in the last elections, reports  Vicky Nanjappa.

Analysis of the last assembly elections in poll-bound Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram shows that the chief ministers barely made it to the 50 per cent vote share mark. 

The five-state assembly elections are only three days away with the first phase in Chhattisgarh scheduled for Monday. And even this poll season, vote share continues to a debatable topic. 

Vice President Hamid Ansari has expressed his concern over the extremely low percentage of representativeness in our Parliament and state legislative assemblies. In February, pressing for electoral reforms, he said that voting should be made compulsory and a candidate should be declared elected only if he polls more than 50 per cent of the vote.  

Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch have conducted an analysis of the vote share and the representativeness of MLAs who were elected in the 2008 assembly elections in the five states -- Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. And the figures are dismal.

Vote share is the percentage of total number of votes received by the winner of the total number of valid votes polled. Representativeness is the ratio of number of votes polled for the winner and total number of registered voters in the area.

Click NEXT to see how the chief ministers of the five poll-bound states fared in 2008…

Delhi

Ninety nine per cent of the winners got less that 40 per cent of the registered votes in 2008. Dr SCL Gupta from the Sangam Vihar constituency and Parvez Hashmi from the Okhla constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate. They received only 14 per cent votes. 

Vote share

Forty-seven winners out of 70 (67 per cent) won with less than 50 per cent of the votes polled. Dr SCL Gupta won with the lowest vote share of 27 per cent.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit won with a vote share of 52 per cent and represented 29 per cent of the total voters from her New Delhi constituency.

…

Rajasthan

Ninety eight per cent of the winners in Rajasthan received less than four per cent of the registered votes.

Ramswaroop from the Kotputli constituency and Anita from Nagar constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes out of the total electorate -- barely 14 per cent.

Vote share

One hundred and sixty one out of the 200 contestants won with the less that 50 per cent of the votes polled.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot won with 55 per cent of the vote share and 31 per cent representativeness from the Sardarpura constituency.   

…

Madhya Pradesh

Ninety three per cent of the winners received less than 40 per cent of the registered votes. 

Bhanwar Raja Manavendra Singh from the Maharajpur constituency and Ahirwar Ramdayalf from the Chandla constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes -- 12 per cent.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won with highest representativeness, of 45 per cent from his Budhni constituency.

Vote share

Eighty one per cent winners, ie, 186 out of 230 received less than 50 per cent of the votes polled. Bhanwar Raja Manavendra Singh from the Maharajpur constituency won with the least vote share of 19 per cent.

The chief minister won with a vote share of 62 per cent.

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Chhattisgarh

Ninety one per cent of the winners received less than 40 per cent of the registered voters. Mahesh Gagda from the Bijapur constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes -- 13 per cent.

Vote share

Seventy-two winners out of 90 (80 per cent) received less than 50 per cent of the votes polled. Ravi Shankar Tripathi from the Bhatgaon constituency won with the lowest vote share of 28 per cent.

Chief Minister Raman Singh won with the highest vote share of 59 per cent and a representativeness of 47 per cent from the Rajnandgaon constituency.

Click NEXT to read future…

Mizoram

Ninety per cent of the winners received less than 40 per cent of the registered votes.  

K Liantlinga from Aizawl South-I constituency won with the lowest percentage of votes – 26 per cent -- out of the total electorate.

Vote share

Thirty-seven winners out of 40 (93 per cent) received less than 50 per cent of the votes polled. John Rotluangliana from the Mamit constituency and K Liantlinga from Aizawl South-I constituency won with the lowest vote share of 32 per cent.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla won with a vote share of 40 per cent and representativeness of 35 per cent from the Serchhip constituency and with a vote share of 35 per cent and representativeness of 29 per cent from South Tuipui.

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