Changing Political Landscape of West Bengal: A Study of Lok Sabha Elections, 2009 & 2014

Abstract

The Constitution of India provides for a bicameral Parliament consisting of the President and two Houses known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha). With an over a billion people, the Republic of India is the world's largest democracy. The Lok Sabha elections will be held to 543 constituencies of India, while two seats will be reserved for nominations from the Anglo-Indian community. West Bengal has 42 parliamentary constituencies, out of which, 10 are reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, and 2 are reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Tribes. The state has held regular elections since independence and is known for its political activism. West Bengal elects 42 representatives to the lower house of the Parliament or Lok Sabha, the third highest in the country. The present exercise examines how far the distribution of votes of a party in one election follows the distribution in the preceding election. The parties with well-defined socio-economic bases show up well in terms of spatial support consistency. The data has been collected from Election Commission of India for two consecutive Lok Sabha election 2009 & 2014 respectively for comparative study of the voting pattern in the state. The data consist of parliamentary constituency-wise voting pattern of electors, party-wise votes, and voter turnout in 42 constituencies over two elections. The study uses the cartographic technique like pie diagram, bar diagram and proportional circles to show the different pattern of voting for analysis. It has been observed that major political events cast their shadows on electoral politics due to which the spatial patterns of support leads to change in political landscape in West Bengal. The support pattern of the AITC is increasing whereas the Left Front which had ruled the government in the state consecutively for 34 years is losing their votes pattern. AITC has swept the state comprehensively, and with 34 parliamentary seats won in 2014 election, it has emerged as the fourth largest political party in India.