This article explores the political foundations of ethnic security fears and examines the relationship between the structure of party competition at the constituency level and security fears at the individual level in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. The analysis shows that security fears are higher in constituencies characterised by multiparty competition. The central implication of this finding is that rather than leading to ethnic moderation, multiparty competition in ethnic party systems tends to be more ethnically divisive than in two party systems, increasing collective fears of the future.