By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 20 Apr: The polling for the first phase of the ongoing General Elections was completed yesterday. Uttarakhand voted in the first phase in all its 5 constituencies. However, lower than expected voter turnout has perplexed not only the poll pundits but also the political parties in the fray. In this phase, there was a contest on all the five seats of Uttarakhand.
Political parties are also complaining that, because of the polling in the first phase itself, a conducive environment and tempo could not gather steam by the time of voting and it was one reason why voters did not turn out in expected numbers to exercise their franchise. However, many reasons and implications are being discussed regarding possible outcome of the results. Of course, the political parties, the candidates and the people, all have to wait till 4 June to see the actual results.
It may be recalled that for about one and a half months, the leaders of political parties campaigned and reached out to voters in their own ways but they failed to inspire the voters to come out and vote in large numbers. As a result, this time there was the lowest turnout as compared to last two elections. The campaign of most candidates, irrespective of the political affiliation was rather laid back, and the campaign expenditure also appeared to be lower.
Speculation has already begun among the voters, the candidates and the political parties on who has gained or lost out due to lower voter turnout. Poll pundits also claim that high or low voting does not necessarily indicate the same factors and conclusions in every election and may vary from election to election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed two rallies in these elections on behalf of BJP. In addition, top BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP President JP Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed several rallies here. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami addressed more than 70 rallies across the state. Not only this, to ensure higher voting, BJP also created a network of booth committees and Panna Pramukhs at 11,729 booths. This campaign was launched under the title, “Main Bhi Panna Pramukh”. A separate strategy was also made for 2 assembly segments which the party had lost in the last assembly elections in 2022. But all these efforts did not obviously yield expected results.
On the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat, the lowest turnout of voters was witnessed in Rishikesh and Roorkee assembly segments at 51.3 percent, which is lower by over 8 percent as compared to the past.
In Pauri, the lowest turnout was recorded in Devprayag, while on Almora seat, lowest turnout was seen in the Salt assembly segment. On the Tehri Garhwal seat, Vikasnagar had the highest turnout and Pratapnagar had the least. On the Nainital-US Nagar seat, Sitarganj had the highest and Bhimtal had the least, Ramnagar in Garhwal had the highest turnout and Devprayag had the least.
Several political commentators have pointed out an interesting fact. A visibly low turnout was also seen in most of the 23 assembly segments which were won by Congress in the 2022 assembly elections. This indicates that even the Congress MLAs could not inspire their voters to come out in large numbers and cast votes. According to them, the reason for this could be indifference of traditional Congress supporters as well as the Congress workers. The Congress campaign was also marred by the fact that, with the exception of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sachin Pilot, no other top party leader visited the state to campaign. Besides this, many Congress leaders switching over to BJP just before the elections also might have dampened the spirt of Congress workers. The Congress workers appeared to be somewhat dejected with even the Congress High Command not taking the election in Uttarakhand seriously. These analysts claim that, as a result, pro-Congress voters did not come out to vote in despair. Not many polling agents were at the booths this time in the state from the Congress in most parts of the state except in Haridwar district.
Surprisingly, even in several Muslim dominated areas, which are considered the vote bank of Congress, there was the same disappointment and the voter turnout was not as expected, but it was obviously on the higher side as compared to the other constituencies. Some claim that being a Friday could be one reason for relatively lower Muslim voter turnout this time.
Some analysts also assert that polling is generally higher when the voters want a change in the government and during the time of a strong anti- incumbency wave. This was not the case, they assert, this time.
While some others claim that, on the one hand, the BJP and its candidates depended largely on Modi’s popularity hoping that his name itself would bring more voters out, on the other hand, Congress candidates and the party appeared to lack confidence to fight the election with all their might and resources.
As expected, the turnout was higher in rural areas while in Dehradun city, many might have chosen to go out on a long weekend instead of staying back to cast votes. They also claim that the youth turnout was lower this time also perhaps due to relatively dull campaigning.
A data analysis indicates that the MLAs and the Municipal Corporators and Councillors also did not work hard enough to draw people to polling stations irrespective of their political affiliation. The MLAs and ex-MLAs and the municipal corporators from the BJP were more active on social media than on the ground, some BJP leaders have claimed, as they mainly depended on Modi Magic to win.
Voting percentage remained lower among the government employees too as they appeared indifferent to the poll outcome.
