How is caste preferred in politics?

How is caste preferred in politics?

Answer:

  • No parliamentary constituency in the country has a clear majority of one single caste. So every candidate and party needs to win the confidence of more than one caste and community to win elections.
  • No party wins the votes of all the voters of a caste or community. When people say that a caste is a ‘vote bank’ of one party, it usually means that a large proportion of the voters from that caste vote for that party.
  • Many political parties may put up candidates from the same caste. Some voters have more than one candidate from their caste while many voters have no candidate from their caste.
  • The ruling party and the sitting MPs or MLAs frequently lose elections in a country. That would not have happened if all castes and communities were frozen in their political preferences.