Muslim Minorities In Electoral Politics Of Tripura

ABSTRACT

Indian democracy allows citizens to choose their ruler by using their democratic rights of Universal Adult Franchise. However, they all cannot freely choose their representative due to many obligations from their leaders, community, and groups to which they belong. The study of electoral politics helps us to understand determinants of the voting behaviour of individual or community. The participation of religious minorities in electoral politics increases significantly, elections after elections, and their share in governance has increased only marginally. Among the Minorities, Muslims are the vulnerable section of Society and under-represented in India’s legislative bodies and political process and the state of Tripura. Tracing the position of Muslim minorities in the electoral politics of Tripura, the findings observe that Muslims are politically less aware due to many socio-economic problems and the terrible intention of some political parties for using Muslims as vote bank without concerning the development of the communities. In this background, the present study is an attempt to understand the role of Muslim Minorities in the electoral politics of Tripura. It also examines the issues and factors that influence the Muslims’ political behaviour during elections in Tripura.

Keywords: Democracy, Development, Plurality, Political exclusion, Vote bank.

https://doi.org/10.37948/ensemble-2020-0202-a015