By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 20 Apr: Uttarakhand, which went to the polls yesterday in the ongoing Parliamentary Elections witnessed the lowest percentage of voting since 2009. While top BJP leaders led by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt were claiming over 75 percent polling would take place in the state (something which has never happened in the history of the state) and the Congress was claiming anti-incumbency wave against the Modi Government, no one in the political circles anticipated low polling in the state. The state officially recorded 55.86 percent voting in these elections, as against 61.88 percent in 2019 and 62.15 percent in 2014. In the 2004 general elections, 49.25 percent voting was recorded while in 2009 general elections, 53.75 percent voting was recorded in Uttarakhand. Several reasons and excuses are now being offered by the Election Commission and the politicians for the low turnout.
On its part, the Election Commission had also set a target of 75 percent voting in the state in these general elections. The State Election Machinery claimed to have taken special efforts to increase the voting ranging from issuing appeals through social media to reaching out to the booths and administrating oath to voters that they would cast their votes, and focussing on booths which have a history of low voting. However, despite all these ‘efforts’, the vote percentage remained low as compared to the 2019 and 2014 elections.
There are complaints that the Booth Level Officers also failed to distribute voters’ slips to all the voters, something that the State Election Office denies. However, failure to distribute hundred percent voters’ slips to the voters can easily bring down the voting percentage by one to two percent as the voters who do not get voters’ slips may not get the motivation to cast votes. However, it must be admitted that the election machinery can’t play a role in inspiring voters to cast votes who might have political reasons not to exercise their franchise this time.
It may be recalled that the entire team of the Election Commission claimed to have organised various activities with the help of SVEEP across the state. It was claimed that 60 lakh people were administered the oath to vote. However the net result was that, out of 83 lakh, only about 43 lakh voters turned out to cast their votes.
The Election Commission had constituted a Turnout Implementation Plan Committee to reach out to every booth in every village. Apart from the state level, the Chief Development Officer in every district was made its nodal officer and given the responsibility to make voters aware at every booth through cooperative societies and others, so that they come out to vote. In addition, the Election Commission made special efforts through social media to reach out to the youth in particular. Various exercises including reel competition on Instagram and quiz on Facebook were conducted. An appeal was also made through the brand ambassadors and state icons.
The Election Commission had specifically identified the booths with low voting. Here the Commission officials themselves came into the field to increase the vote percentage. People were asked to vote but it was ineffective. However, according to several analysts, the election commission failed to ensure that BLOs distribute almost hundred percent of voters’ slips among the voters. This task in the past was better performed by the party workers of BJP and Congress in the state.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande says that there could be many reasons for a low turnout. He pointed out that there were many marriages slated on the polling day and that the temperatures were also high, especially in the plains. He, however, added that the final voting percentage may go up by up to two percent after including the service voters and the votes cast through ballots by the disabled and the elderly voters.
Besides the administrative reasons, there are political reasons always in play which also decide the voting percentage in any constituency. Several polling experts have claimed that, this time, the political parties too failed to create the kind of atmosphere and tempo that encourages more voters to come out and vote.
Speaking to Garhwal Post, social activist and data analyst Anoop Nautiyal has cited data to suggest that the actual final voting percentage during the last parliamentary elections in 2019 was higher than what is mentioned on the portal of the Election Commission and claims that taking this into consideration, the voting percentage these elections might have fallen not by around 5 percent as being claimed but by around 9 percent as compared to the 2019 elections.
He said that final figures of total voting percentage across the state in 2019 stood at 61.88 percent. Constituency wise, he reminds that, in 2019, Haridwar constituency had 69.18 percent; Nainital recorded 68.97 percent voting; Tehri had recorded 58.87 percent voting; Pauri (Garhwal) had recorded 55.17 percent while Almora had recorded 52.31, which means that the state has seen around 9 percent fall in voting.
