Study of Voting Behaviour in Manipur With Reference to State Legislative Assembly Election Held in 2022

Voting behaviour observed in the 12th Manipur state assembly election was shaped by several rational and irrational factors. Generally, voters were influenced by political parties, from which intending candidates were going to face the election and the personality of the intending candidate. In this election, people looked at and preferred political parties that were ruling at the centre. On the other hand, people's voting behaviour was shaped by the candidate’s educational qualification, level of humility and financial position. Financial position of the intending candidate largely influenced the voters as it was witnessed the increasing number of crorepatis elected representatives in state assembly election held in 2022 from state assembly election held in 2017. Despite the above facts, there were instances where, even a destitute or a widow could independently discard the voting request or influence from an influential candidate if the candidate didn’t beg for vote. In another dimension, because of the increasing influence of social media, there was an observed changing pattern of voting behaviour of youth as a larger number of voters defied direction from head of family members to vote for a particular candidate, by and large, they resorted to liberty of choosing candidates. As far as the voting behaviour of hill and valley was concerned, people of hill districts were more concerned about the political parties, whereas the people of the valley gave more emphasis on individual candidature. It was also observed that the voting behaviour of hill people was influenced by political issues based on ethnicity, which was the main deviation from voting behaviour observed in the valley of the state.