Mood of First-Time Voter: 58% in Tier 2 say they will definitely vote in LS polls; 31% in Tier 3 cities identify with conservative views

The Lok Sabha election in a few months is set to see a massive 130 million first-time voters go to the polls. The stakes are already high for the National Democratic Alliance that seeks to secure five more years and a seemingly united Opposition that seeks to dislodge the ruling BJP and its allies at any cost. To get a better idea of how young first-time voters — people aged 18 to 21 — perceive of the forthcoming election, YouGov India and Firstpost conducted a nationwide survey between 3 and 9 January. There was a total of 1,324 respondents, from a panel of over 40,000, who answered questions ranging from politics and jobs, to religion and the media. The findings are being serialised in four sections: 1) Politics and Ideology 2) Jobs and Economy 3) Religion and Community 4) News and Information

The third part of the section titled ‘Politics and Ideology’ looks at how residents of Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities view politics. When it came to politically ideology, 19 percent of respondents from Tier 1 cities and 18 percent from Tier 2 cities identified as holding conservative views. In Tier 3 cities, however, 31 percent claimed to hold such views. Conversely, In Tier 1 and 2 cities, 23 and 22 percent of respondents respectively identified as having liberal views, while in Tier 3 cities, this percentage dropped to 14 percent. Further, it appears all three tiers of cities have different key demands from the next government. While in Tier 1 cities, 72 percent of respondents demanded jobs (with better education facilities coming in at a close second with 71 percent), 71 percent of respondents in Tier 2 demanded safer conditions for women and better job opportunities. In Tier 3 cities, 61 percent of respondents sought an end to corruption and better job opportunities.