Unemployment, price rise, agrarian distress were reasons for Shivraj ouster: ADR reports

In the recently-concluded assembly elections in the Hindi heartland, BJP was ousted from power. Out of the three, BJP was in power in two states, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for the last 15 years. Whereas in Rajasthan it had been in power for the last 5 years.

After the loss, at a press conference, BJP chief Amit Shah said that the party will assess the reasons for its failure. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has helped the saffron party in this upheaval task.

A report released by ADR states that unemployment, price rise and agrarian distress were the issues which dominated Madhya Pradesh during Assembly elections.

The data provided by ADR indicates that ‘better employment opportunities’ was the most crucial rural issue with 59% respondents. This was followed by ‘higher price realisation for price products” at 56% and at third place was Electricity for agriculture at 40%.

There is also a clear disparity between the employment available and the skill-set in the minds of the rural people, as 59% ‘better employment opportunities’ as an issue, only 4% said ‘training for jobs’ is an issue.

The issues related to agriculture such as ‘High Price Realisation for farm products’, ‘Electricity for agriculture’, ‘Agriculture subsidy for seeds/fertilisers’, ‘Availability of water for agriculture’ and ‘Agriculture loan availability’ were placed at the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth positions respectively for the rural respondents.

‘Better Roads’, ‘Better Public Transport’, ‘Drinking Water’, and ‘Empowerment of Women and security’ were all voted by 26%, 21%, 20% and 6% of the respondents respectively.

‘Better Garbage Clearance’, ‘Eradication of corruption’, and ‘Lower food prices for consumers’ were all voted as minor problems with 12%, 6% and 6% of the votes respectively.

The least important problems were ‘Terrorism’, ‘Encroachment of Public Lands/ Lakes, etc.’ and ‘Strong defence/Military’ with 4%, 1% and 3% of the voters voting for them respectively.

According to the urban people who were surveyed, 70% of the respondents thought that ‘better employment opportunities’ was the most major urban issue.

Similarly from the data of urban respondents too, there is a clear disparity between the employment available and the skill-set in the minds of the urban people as only 9% considered ‘training for jobs’ as an issue. According to 41%, law and order situation was also a major issue.

‘Better Hospitals/ Primary Health-Care Centres’, ‘Traffic congestion’, ‘Better Roads’, ‘Facility for cyclists and pedestrians on roads’ and ‘Better public transport’ were ranked at second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh positions.

Other important urban issues were pollution-based with ‘Noise Pollution’, ‘Water and Air Pollution’ and ‘Mining/Quarrying’ with 24%, 23%, and 10% of the respondents considering these as issues respectively. At least 20% of the urban respondents considered ‘Empowerment of women and their safety’ as a problem. 21% of the respondents wanted ‘electricity for domestic use’.

The people of Madhya Pradesh were also asked to rate the performance of BJP-led government in state, on a scale under 1 to 5

Shivraj Government performed poorly with respect to eradicating corruption, garbage clearance and public transport, according to rural respondents.

The sectors which performed worst were management of drinking water and pollution in the water along with encroachment of public land/lakes and reservation for jobs and education’.

Whereas, the BJP government fared the best on availability of agricultural loan and providing electricity of agriculture in the rural areas, with a score of 4.51 and 4.28 respectively.

In the urban region, the BJP-led government was ranked poor when it came to security of women and their empowerment. According to the urban respondents, the BJP govt performed worst in subsidised food distribution, lower food prices for consumers, garbage clearance and reservation for jobs and education.