How Diverse are India's Major Political Parties
Some insight into how diverse India’s major political parties look like on paper.
| Women | Muslims | Dynasts (from political families) | Graduate degree and higher | Percentage with declared criminal cases | Crorepati | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BJP | 12% | 1.6% | 22% | 71% | 40% | 83% |
| INC | 14% | 7.6% | 31% | 76% | 39% | 83% |
| TMC (West Bengal) | 41% | 16.7% | 75% | |||
| NCP | 3% | 68% | 50% | 59% | ||
| CPI(M) | 14% | 78% | 58% | 36% | ||
| AAP | 11% | 2.5% | 71% | 26% | ||
| Shiv Sena | 4.4% | 0% | ||||
| BSP | 8% | 53% | 22% | 33% | ||
| Samajwaadi Party | 17% | |||||
| Average | 9% | 18% | 48% | 19% | 29% |
Most of the SC/ST candidates contested from reserved constituencies. Of the 33 ST candidates that contested from “general” seats, 4 were from BJP, 4 from Congress, 13 were from other parties and 11 were independent candidates. For SC candidates contesting from “general” seats, the BJP fielded 2, the Congress fielded 3 and the BSP fielded 15.
AAP was the only major party to have fielded a transgender candidate.
Some things to note:
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The severity of criminal cases differs, from hate speech to murder.
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The TMC data is reflective of West Bengal while Shiv Sena’s data is largely based in Maharashtra given that most of the party’s candidates are from Maharashtra. This must be taken into account since the demographics of these places are not necessarily the same as India as a whole. For example, the percentage of Muslims in West Bengal is nearly twice that of Muslims across India.
Citations
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47315852
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aam_Aadmi_Party#General_election,_2019
https://www.karnataka.com/elections/women-in-the-lok-sabha-since-independence/