Jalandhar West records lowest voter turnout in 3 decades
Jalandhar West assembly bypoll recorded the lowest voter turnout in its assembly polls history in the past three decades.
Jalandhar West assembly bypoll recorded the lowest voter turnout in its assembly polls history in the past three decades.
The voter turnout was recorded at 54.98%, while it was lowest at 36.3% in 1992 state assembly polls, when major sikh political organisations boycotted the elections.
In the 2024 bypoll, the voter turnout dipped by 12.33% compared to 67.31% in 2022 assembly polls. In recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, Jalandhar West registered 64.45% of polling. Of the 1,71,963 voters in the constituency, 94,546 voters cast their franchise on Wednesday.
A senior official said that voter’s ‘fatigue’ and ‘apathy’ are some of the reasons behind the low turnout after the conclusion of Lok Sabha polls. This has doubled the worries of candidates and political parties as the winning margin is likely to reduce this time. The voters have sealed the fate of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Mohinder Bhagat, Congress’ Surinder Kaur, BJP nominee Sheetal Angural, Akali Dal’s Surjit Kaur and Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Binder Kumar Lakha. The counting of votes will be done on July 13.
In the 2017 assembly polls, the voter turnout in Jalandhar West remained highest with 72.70%.
Meanwhile an official said the polling percentage in the bypolls always remained lower than the average as per the trends. “The voters from the constituency cast their franchise for the fourth time including 2022 assembly elections, 2023 Lok Sabha bypoll and 2024 general elections. Moreover, the hot and humid weather also played its part as people preferred to stay inside,” he added.
Jalandhar deputy commissioner Dr Himanshu Aggarwal, who is also district election officer, said they are satisfied with voter turnout as the most important was to conduct the whole electioneering process in a peaceful and free and fair manner.
“If we look at the bypoll trends in the recent past, the polling percentage of 54.98% was not bad as the segment recorded 56.4% in last year’s parliamentary byelection,” Aggarwal said.
It may be mentioned that then AAP MLA Angural had got the better of Congress’ Sushil Kumar Rinku by 4,253 votes.