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Pakistan Social Sciences Review (PSSR) April-June, 2022 Volume 6, Issue 2 been unable to gain any major victory in terms of the seat. Recently, Tehreek Labiak Pakistan (TLP) is a new phenomenon in Punjab politics. It is being observed that though they have not won in elections, but they have been able to squeeze the margin of victory for the other political parties by securing few thousand votes. In this context, 67.8 percent of the respondents agreed that they cast their vote keeping in view their political party affiliation, while 32 percent of the respondents did not agree (Liaqat, 2019). Even the existing literature on Punjab reveals that political party affiliation is conditioned with the other factors that include local grouping, general political wave before elections and the relationship and status of the candidate within the party cadre. Table 3 Do you think that people only cast vote on the basis of their political party affiliation? Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Agree 59 67.8 67.8 67.8 Valid Disagree Total 28 32.2 32.2 100.0 87 100.0 100.0 The Caste, Biradari and Sect Factor Within the electoral culture of the sub-continent, caste and biradari have been one of major factors in shaping political behavior and choice of vote. Therefore, even after independence Pakistan inherited the culture of conceiving caste as an integral part of political campaigns, voting behavior, and support system (Karim, 2014). Most of the existing literature comprehends the significance of caste, biradari and religious sect as decisive factors in the rural politics of Punjab. Caste and biradaris including Makhdoms/ Quershi, Jutt, Kharl, Watoos, Mughal, Arain, Kashmiri, Gujjar, Awan, Khokar, Janjua, Malik, Dogar, Paracha, Bodla, Khanzada, Kasuri, Chaudary, Leghari, Bosan, Marath reside in Punjab. On the other hand, traditionally, the binary sectarian division between Sunni and Shia sects is also one of the sources of attaining political support based on religious ideology. In the recent past, the sect-based division within the Sunni sect particularly between Deoband, Barelvi, and Ahl e Hadith has also implications on the electoral trends in Punjab. The emergence of Tehrek Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a Barelvi group transformed into a political party illustrates this trend. Punjab became the major vote bank of TLP. Though they did not get any major success in the General elections of 2018, their candidates were placed at third number in 62 constituencies in Punjab(Chaudhry, 2018). In this context, there was a mixed response by the sample population, unlike the traditional patterns. Though, 56.3 percent of the people endorsed that caste, biradari and religious sect are an important source of voting behavior in Punjab, but on the same hand, a propionate of 35.6 percent people negated with the importance of caste, biradari, and the feature of the religious sect, whereas 8 percent of the respondents were indecisive. There are several factors that explicates this new trend which includes the rise of youth bulge which accounts for sixty-four percent of Pakistan's population, the renewed role and participatory trends within the political parties, the socio-cultural and economic change in the villages including education level, economic standing and diverse agricultural activities (Usman, 2016, pp. 605-616) along with the increased use of social media platforms and increased urbanization all contributes in slightly reducing the 151

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