Ruchi thinks because there are roughly twice the number of political parties compared to the number of Lok Sabha seats, who you vote for does not necessarily represent your own constituency:

It doesn’t matter which party one votes for. Coalition politics renders ideology irrelevant since policies in coalition trend to the mean with extreme positions canceling each other (in action, not rhetoric). Moreover, ideological positions themselves are expendable as all parties frequently switch sides in unashamed power barter. Herein lies the unifying theme, the focal point of political activity in India, the acquisition of power. Strip BJP of its RSS/Hindutva jingoism, Congress of its election year populism and Gandhi association, BSP of its Dalit roots, and there is almost no substantive difference between the parties. Our political parties are differentiated by their marketing and vote-garnering strategies, and not their development policies. In this scenario, “voting” as an act of electing representatives for the voters’ views/ideals is completely moot.