For Gujarat's 73% voters, religion and caste overshadow candidates' "criminal" background: ADR survey

By A Representative
In a clear warning on the manner in which Gujarat society is getting increasingly divided along religious and caste lines, a voter behaviour survey ahead of the state assembly polls has revealed that caste or religion is all set to play an important role in polls. Thus, said the survey, in 72.68% of cases, the survey found, caste and religion played a major role in deciding to vote for a criminal candidate.
In a related query, 70% of voters said they would ignore the criminal record of candidates because do “good work”, and a whopping 79.66% of voters said criminal cases against the candidates were "not serious." The report insisted, "Around 73% people vote for candidates facing criminal charges because they were of their own caste or religion."
Releasing the report in Ahmedabad, Maj Gen Anil Verma of the well-known advocacy group Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said, referring to a previous survey, that "candidates with criminal records have a 50% better chance of winning the polls than others."
Carried out among 500 voters in each district as part of an all-India survey in Spring this year, the survey further showed that only 28.19% of voters said receiving gifts from candidates was illegal, while 60.48% knew that gifts were being distributed, apparently suggesting there was nothing wrong in it. Further, a mere 17.77% of voters they were concerned about spending in elections.
When questioned what did the survey have to say about the atmosphere of fear among certain regions and marginalised communities from criminal candidates, significantly, Verma said, "We did not take the fear factor into account... It did not occur to us."

Asked what did he have to say about the Gujarat government's refusal to arrest murder accused Dinu Bogha Solanki, ex-BJP MP, despite Supreme Court order of October 30, and whether such cases have any impact on the election process, Verma said, "There are clear Supreme Court guidelines in issues such as these. But we refrain from commenting on specific cases."
Pankti Jog of the Gujarat Election Watch, which partners with the ADR in Gujarat, however, suggested that there was real danger that sections of the marginalized communities may be able to vote.
"Our interactions in Saurashtra revealed that voters expressed their apprehension whether their names had remained intact in in the poll list and they would be able to vote. There was also apprehension about whether the new voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) electronic machines were fool proof", she said.
Meanwhile, Jog said, Gujarat's top Election Commission of India official, BB Swain, has rejected the demand to facilitate voting arrangement for the marginalised 6,800 salt pan workers, a denotified tribe, which lives and works in the Little Rann of Kutch for eight months in a year.
"He told us that there are no legal provisions to arrange for buses to take them to vote in their villages, which are between 50 and 100 km away from their place of shelter and work. Nor is it possible to provide mobile voting facility, he added", Jog asserted.
Seeking to highlight voter priorities, the survey suggested that, when asked to identify which developmental issues were important, better employment opportunities receive the highest score of 8.72 on a scale of 10, followed by public transport 7.65, empowerment of women 7.60, security for women 7.41, environmental issues 6.77, better electric supply 6.71, better roads 6.64, drinking water 6.61, and better law and order/ policing 6.61.
In rural areas, on a scale of 10, the issues that received a high rating included price-realization for farm products 8.58, electricity for agriculture 6.69, and irrigation programmes 6.65. On the other hand in urban areas, the issues that received a high rating included traffic congestion 7.64, 6 training for jobs 6.71, and encroachment of public land/lakes etc. 6.70.

Comments

When a lake becomes real estate: The mismanagement of Hyderabad’s waterbodies

By Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava* Misunderstood, misinterpreted and misguided governance and management of urban lakes in India —illustrated here through Hyderabad —demands urgent attention from Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), the political establishment, the judiciary, the builder–developer lobby, and most importantly, the citizens of Hyderabad. Fundamental misconceptions about urban lakes have shaped policies and practices that systematically misuse, abuse and ultimately erase them—often in the name of urban development.

'Serious violation of international law': US pressure on Mexico to stop oil shipments to Cuba

By Vijay Prashad In January 2026, US President Donald Trump declared Cuba to be an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US security—a designation that allows the United States government to use sweeping economic restrictions traditionally reserved for national security adversaries. The US blockade against Cuba began in the 1960s, right after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 but has tightened over the years. Without any mandate from the United Nations Security Council—which permits sanctions under strict conditions—the United States has operated an illegal, unilateral blockade that tries to force countries from around the world to stop doing basic commerce with Cuba. The new restrictions focus on oil. The United States government has threatened tariffs and sanctions on any country that sells or transports oil to Cuba.

Covishield controversy: How India ignored a warning voice during the pandemic

Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD * It is a matter of pride for us that a person of Indian origin, presently Director of National Institute of Health, USA, is poised to take over one of the most powerful roles in public health. Professor Jay Bhattacharya, an Indian origin physician and a health economist, from Stanford University, USA, will be assuming the appointment of acting head of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA. Bhattacharya would be leading two apex institutions in the field of public health which not only shape American health policies but act as bellwether globally.

When grief becomes grace: Kerala's quiet revolution in organ donation

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Kerala is an important model for understanding India's diversity precisely because the religious and cultural plurality it has witnessed over centuries brought together traditions and good practices from across the world. Kerala had India's first communist government, was the first state where a duly elected government was dismissed, and remains the first state to achieve near-total literacy. It is also a land where Christianity and Islam took root before they spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Kerala has deep historic rationalist and secular traditions.

Bangladesh goes to polls as press freedom concerns surface

By Nava Thakuria* As Bangladesh heads for its 13th Parliamentary election and a referendum on the July National Charter simultaneously on Thursday (12 February 2026), interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus has urged all participating candidates to rise above personal and party interests and prioritize the greater interests of the Muslim-majority nation, regardless of the poll outcomes.

Growth without justice: The politics of wealth and the economics of hunger

By Vikas Meshram* In modern history, few periods have displayed such a grotesque and contradictory picture of wealth as the present. On one side, a handful of individuals accumulate in a single year more wealth than the annual income of entire nations. On the other, nearly every fourth person in the world goes to bed hungry or half-fed.

Thali, COVID and academic credibility: All about the 2020 'pseudoscientific' Galgotias paper

By Jag Jivan The first page image of the paper "Corona Virus Killed by Sound Vibrations Produced by Thali or Ghanti: A Potential Hypothesis" published in the Journal of Molecular Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Affairs , Vol. 2, Issue 2 (2020), has gone viral on social media in the wake of the controversy surrounding a Chinese robot presented by the Galgotias University as its original product at the just-concluded AI summit in Delhi . The resurfacing of the 2020 publication, authored by Dharmendra Kumar , Galgotias University, has reignited debate over academic standards and scientific credibility.

Beyond the conflict: Experts outline roadmap for humane street dog solutions

By A Representative In a direct response to the rising polarization surrounding India’s street dog population, a high-level coalition of parliamentarians, legal experts, and civil society leaders gathered in the capital to propose a unified national framework for humane animal management. The emergency deliberations were sparked by a recent Suo Moto judgment that has significantly deepened the divide between animal welfare advocates and those calling for the removal of community dogs, a tension that has recently escalated into reported violence against both animals and their caretakers in states like Telangana.

The Galgotia model: How India is losing the war on knowledge

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Galgotia is the face of 'quality education' as envisioned by those who never considered education a tool for social change or national uplift — and yet this is precisely the model Narendra Modi pursued in Gujarat as Chief Minister. In the mid-eighties, when many of us were growing up, 'Nirma' became one of the most popular advertisements on Doordarshan. Whether the product was any good hardly seemed to matter.

Search This Blog