How Do Muslims Vote? Case of Seemanchal 2014 Parliamentary Elections

Abstract

The voting behaviour of the Muslim community has always been a puzzle for the students of Indian democracy. There are available two extreme positions: (a) Muslim community always votes en bloc and hence it is treated as vote bank by the political parties and (b) like any other community in India Muslim community too is not monolithic, and there are many subcommunities based on language, region, local interest and so on; the voting behaviour of this community is influenced by these factors and hence does not vote en bloc. This article aims at examining these positions by conducting a fieldwork in the Seemanchal region of Bihar during the parliamentary elections 2014. The finding suggests that Muslim community is sociologically heterogeneous and this has impact on the electoral behaviour of the community; however, at times the community do go for en bloc voting depending on the contingent factors. In the parliamentary elections 2014, the community’s voting behaviour was guided by the Modi factor and it voted en bloc to any candidate who had an advantage over the BJP candidate.