Healthcare Policies and Electoral Politics in West Bengal: 2011-2021

Abstract

It goes without saying that health is an important parameter for measuring human development in any country. Though people in general are concerned about health (or by ill health), still healthcare policies have seldom been at the centre of electoral agenda in India – a country boasting to be world’s largest democracy and having a highly politicised electorate. This paper seeks to explore if healthcare policies in the last decade affected elections in West Bengal – a state that was under a communist government for the last 34 years. How healthcare issues were projected by various political parties in their respective election manifestos and how the common people perceived the situation of healthcare and the impact of such perception (if at all any), during elections, would be explored. If there has been a break after the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic would also be explored.