THE RISE OF ISSUE-BASED POLITICS IN INDIA: A STUDY OF CHANGING POLITICAL PRIORITIES AMONG YOUNG VOTERS
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56815/IRJAHS.v2025i2.87-96
Keywords:
Issue-Based Politics, Young Voters, Youth Politics, Voting Behaviour, Unemployment, Inflation, Political Priorities, India, Lok Sabha Elections, Electoral PoliticsAbstract
Indian electoral politics has traditionally been analysed through the frameworks of caste, religion, region, political leadership and party identification. However, the increasing political importance of young voters has introduced a significant dimension to electoral behaviour: the growing salience of concrete public issues such as employment, inflation, education, economic opportunities, governance, welfare delivery, corruption and social security. This paper examines the rise of issue-based politics in India with particular reference to changing political priorities among young voters. The study is based exclusively on secondary data obtained from the Election Commission of India (ECI), LoknitiCentre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), academic studies and other credible published sources available up to 2025.1 The paper concludes that Indian politics is moving towards a more multidimensional form of electoral competition in which young voters increasingly expect political parties to address tangible problems affecting their everyday lives. The rise of issue-based politics therefore represents not the disappearance of identity politics, but the emergence of a more complex and performance-oriented political behaviour among younger citizens.
