In Goa, the candidate has always mattered more to the voters than the party. The same trend was reflected in the 2022 Assembly elections too. In the CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey, close to two-thirds of the voters said they considered the candidate while making their vote choice. This is nine percentage points higher than in 2017. This explains the instability of voter loyalty to parties. On the other hand, close to three in every 10 (29%) voters said that the party was more important for them than the candidate.
When voters said that the candidate was more important than the party, which attributes of the candidate were they looking at? Among those who voted along candidate lines, close to three-fourths said they assessed the work or performance of the candidate whereas close to seven in 10 (69%) said they focused on the educational qualifications of the candidate. Another three-fifths (58%) said they considered the personality of the candidate.
In the main question on voting considerations, caste emerged as an important factor for the voters while making their vote choice — in fact, slightly more so in comparison to the other States that went to the polls. But once voters preferred the candidate over the party, not many said that they look at the candidate’s caste — or so they claimed. Caste or religion become the least preferred attribute of the candidates (Table 1).
