ABSTRACT
In successive elections, electoral participation in India’s big, metropolitan cities has been much lower vis-à-vis than in semi-urban and rural constituencies. In the absence of any empirical evidence, the media and political commentators often attribute this phenomenon to middle-class apathy and their disdain toward electoral politics. This chapter contests this popular claim and argues that in big cities, it is not the middle class but the urban poor which is unable to exercise its franchise. Further, based on a study conducted in Delhi, this chapter attempts to explain that the urban poor are predominantly internal migrants who are excluded from formal, electoral politics due to lower voter turnouts and lower enrolment rates.
