Gautam Budh Nagar registers 57.43% voter turnout

A total of 154,000 voters were registered to vote for 31 candidates in the four town councils in Dankaur, Bilaspur, Jewar and Jehangirpur, and one municipality of Dadri. However, only 88,918 voters exercised their franchise on Thursday

Gautam Budh Nagar registered 57.43% voting turnout in the urban local body (ULB) elections on Thursday, which was at least five percentage points lower than the turnout of 63.78% recorded in the previous elections in 2017.

A pink polling booth at Noida. (Sunil Ghosh/ HT Photo)

District magistrate Manish Verma said the district administration had made all efforts to ensure a good voter turnout these elections.

“Officials of the district administration carried out several inspections of polling stations across the subdivisions where voting was held and the turnout was good in the morning. The turnout during the second half was, maybe, not so good but we are yet to analyse the reasons for that. The district administration made all efforts to bring out more voters through motivation exercises and awareness drives,” said Verma.

A total of 154,000 voters were registered to vote for 31 candidates in the four town councils in Dankaur, Bilaspur, Jewar and Jehangirpur, and one municipality of Dadri. However, only 88,918 voters exercised their franchise on Thursday.

During the last election, there were 144,000 registered voters and 63.78% had turned out to vote.

This time, the total number of voters were reduced from 168,000 to 154,000 after 12 candidates of Rabupura town council were elected to power unopposed when the nomination process ended.

According to district administration data, the lowest turnout was registered in Dadri municipality at 51.88%. Dadri has the highest number of registered voters at 95,006, of whom 49,292 cast their votes.

Voting turnout was the highest in Jehangirpur town council at 74.01%. This ULB has the second lowest registered voters at 9,420. The voting turnout at the other ULBs was 64.73% in Jewar town council, 64.28% in Dankaur town council and 65.73% in Bilaspur town council.

These civic elections are being viewed by political pundits and parties as a key exercise to gauge the mood of urban voters ahead of the 2024 general elections.

According to political analysts, the reason for lower voter turnout could be disorientation among voters.

“Although 57.43% voter turnout is not very low for civic elections, in comparison to last elections, it can be considered a dip. Low voter turnout is often a caused when there is disorientation among the voters regarding the current ruling party or the incumbent representatives. Since these are grassroots level elections, people identify with their candidates more closely and are more emotive about their votes. If the people have not come out to vote, it means there is some resentment among the people regarding the current regiment,” said Rajesh Upadhyay, associate professor, department of political science, Delhi University.

He added that since the last elections were held in the month of November, when the weather was much more cooler, that could be another reason for the low turnout this time.

The voting began at 7am and ended at 5pm and the maximum temperature in Gautam Budh Nagar on Thursday was 38.6 degree Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department.

No incident of violence was reported from any of the voting areas though seven fake voters were arrested by the Gautam Budh Nagar police from Dadri and Bilaspur ULBs and two others were arrested from Dadri for allegedly trying to pressure voters to vote for a particular party.

SM Khan, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, said the maximum deployment was in Dadri municipality area.

“Since Dadri has the highest number of voters, force deployment was highest there. All of Greater Noida zones were divided into three key zones and seven super zones to ensure tight security,” said the DCP.

Laxmi Singh, commissioner of police, Gautam Budh Nagar, said, “The voting went on smoothly and there was no violence reported in any area. Adequate arrangements were made for barriers and pickets on the border to ensure that the elections are conducted peacefully. Inspections were carried out by senior officers to ensure fair elections.”