Most SC/ST candidates are fighting without the support of any political party
The participation of political participants belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe has been on a declining trend over the years.
An analysis of data from Ashoka University’s Trivedi Center for Political Data (TCDP) shows that 1,575 candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) participated in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which amounts to 19.6 percent of the total number of candidates. . The TCDP dataset provides caste details where available, so trends should be considered indicative. It shows a significant drop from the previous elections in terms of share among the total number of candidates.
The data takes into account candidates from both reserved and non-reserved constituencies, where available. In 2019, SC/ST candidates also contested from 118 unreserved constituencies, up from 350 unreserved constituencies in the 2014 elections. As per the 2011 census, the Lok Sabha has reserved 84 seats for SCs and 47 for STs, under Article 330 of the Indian Constitution.
Although the proportion of women in the total number of SC/ST candidates contesting has increased, it still remains low. They accounted for 11.4 percent of the total SC/ST participants in 2019, compared to 8.2 percent in 2014. On the other hand, men accounted for 88.6 percent of the participants.
Most SC/ST candidates are fighting without the support of any political party.
In the previous general election, 34.2 percent of the total SC/ST candidates had stood independently. The Congress was next with a share of 7.3 percent, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (7.1 percent), the Bahujan Samaj Party (7.1 percent) and the Bahujan Mukti Party (2.2 percent ).
The share of self-employed varies from approximately 19 percent to 35 percent.
Among the states with the highest number of candidates, Uttar Pradesh leads with a higher share of participants from SC/ST background in the state. Of the total number of candidates contesting from UP, the share of SC/ST was 20 percent. The next was Karnataka (19 percent), followed by Maharashtra (17 percent), Tamil Nadu (15 percent) and Bihar (12 percent).
First print: April 23, 2024 | 11:55 PM IST