The most important factor for voters is CM candidate, says ADR survey

After CM, voters looked at the candidate's party and the candidate, according to the survey

Little we know about how people vote in elections and this was highlighted best by a survey done by the election watchdog Association of Democratic Rights (ADR) during the elections to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. The survey was conducted from August to November. While a professional agency was hired to do it, the ADR designed the questionnaire. The survey was conducted in all the parliamentary constituencies of the state, with roughly 550 respondents in each constituency.

It collected the following information:

• Demographic data: Name, gender, caste/religion, age, types of assets owned (to get wealth ranking information)
• ‘Knowledge’ of voter regarding crime and money in elections
• The survey asked respondents about the reason they vote for a particular candidate. They were  given five choices — candidate, party, party’s chief ministerial candidate, religion and caste
• Respondents had to rank each of these as either very important, important or not important
• Taking the weighted average across respondents for each of these factors, the survey gauged the aggregate importance of each factor across all voters
• It is interesting that, according to the survey, the most important factor for voters is the CM candidate, followed by the candidate’s party and the candidate. The least important factors were the distribution of cash, liquor, gifts, etc, and the candidate’s caste/religion