2023 Karnataka Assembly Election: Public’s perception over Election

Last Updated on June 12, 2023

This time, since months before the election, many media companies have covered public opinions about Karnataka Election. There are plenty of videos on Youtube interviewing the person in the street across every constituency in Karnataka. You must have seen one or two as well. They could be videos about your constituency or the high-voltage constituency like Hubli-Dharwad Central after Jagadish Shettar joining to Congress.

After watching hours and hours of such videos, I have noted down the following common responses from people and the possible rationale behind them.

I have watched the Oggaranne series on Digvijaya Channel, Similar programs from other Youtube channels like – Deccah Herald, Karnataka TV, Public TV, News First, Lion TV Kannada, etc. They all did the same thing. They either asked questions about the state government or constituency or both.

These questions can be divided into 2 categories – At the state and constituency levels.

Examples:

At the state level:
According to you, who should form the government in Karnataka?
According to you, who should be the next Chief Minister of Karnataka?
Which party should come to power?
Will there be a hung assembly this time?
Should the double-engine Sarkar continue?

At the constituency level:
Who will get your vote this time? ….. person X or Y or someone else?
Has your representative carried out any developmental work in your constituency?
What’s done? What is still pending?

Here are some of the popular responses.

“We should not look at the party or the person but we should vote for the person, whoever it is, who does good things or works for the betterment of the constituency.”
This is another way of saying I don’t know what’s going on in politics, especially in my constituency.
This becomes even more clear with follow-up questions like Who is the current MLA of the constituency or Who are you going to vote this time? They will not have a clear answer to these questions.

“We have always been voting for BJP, Congress, or JDS for so long now.”
As if nothing in the world is going to make them change their decision. They are committed to the party or person more than to their spouse. And, sometimes, it could be that if they vote for a different person or party this time, then they would have been seen as someone who voted for the wrong person or party last time.

“What difference does it make? We have to continue to do our daily work or job. That is not going to stop.”
It stems from one of two things. First, because they know no help can come from showing engagement in politics to make their ends meet, they are always occupied with their profession to meet their basic needs. Second, they can’t make the distinction between public life and private life including both personal and professional life for most people. I bet it is usually the first one and also they have lost all hope in politics.

If you want to read more about the 2023 Karnataka assembly Elections, checkout the posts – Has Hindutva failed to get BJP reelected in Karnataka? or Game of Thrones: Missing tickets or decades-long political careers getting killed?