Outcome of FTPT in Diversified Society: Evidence on Disproportionality from Loksabha Constituencies

Democracy across the world has witnessed the evolution of the electoral system. First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) practiced in India does have certain disadvantages like disproportional representation. This paper analyses the election outcome in FPTP electoral system in a diverse society like India using constituency level information for the Loksabha election. This paper tries to understand how social, religious diversity, fractionalization affect the outcome in the FPTP system. The fractionalization index for religious diversity, polarization index religious polarization, Herfindahl–Hirschman Index for vote concentration are formed for Loksabha constituencies to understand the impact of religious diversity on vote concentration as well as vote share of winning candidates. Further regression analysis is done where state-specific and time-specific effects are controlled. It is found that fractionalization i.e. religious diversity affects the vote concentration negatively. It is also found that on average the vote concentration for SC/ST reserved constituencies is lower than general constituencies. This suggests that religious diversity reduces the vote concentration which further leads to disproportionality. It is important to think the ways to provide the space for the parties which are getting votes but not getting seats in Loksabha specifically for reserved constituencies.