Other Backward Class (OBC) voters have again voted for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, according to exit polls by India Today and Axis My India.
Nearly one in three voters in the country are OBC, and 56% of OBC voters chose the NDA in the 2019 elections. That proportion has increased to 58% this time around, according to the 2024 exit poll results.
But the Indian Bloc’s vote share also increased by 11 percentage points. The coalition’s OBC vote share soared from 19 to 30 percent, taking votes from other parties.
In states where OBC politics dominate, the NDA lost 14 percent of the Yadav vote in Bihar, while the INDIA bloc won 24 percent. Notably, the INDIA bloc won a total of 82 percent of the Yadav vote, while the NDA won just 10 percent in the state.
In Maharashtra too, the NDA lost 7 percent of the OBC votes, which were won by the INDIA block. However, despite the drop in vote share, the NDA still retained 62 percent of the OBC votes. The percentage change in OBC votes in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh is opposite. In MP, the NDA gained 7 percent, while the INDIA block lost 7 percent of the OBC votes.
The change in OBC vote share was also noticeable in Karnataka, where the dominant OBC caste is the Vokkaliga. The NDA won 32 percent of the Vokkaliga vote while the INDIA bloc lost 31 percent. In Rajasthan, the Jat OBCs switched allegiance from the NDA to the INDIA bloc. The NDA lost 24 percent of this vote while the Congress-led coalition won 22 percent.
