E-Paper
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Long holiday weekend affected Pune’s voting percentage
While many citizen organisations and groups carried out extensive voter awareness programmes before the polling day, in many cases it failed to achieve the desired result
Despite a massive campaign organised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that people get out and vote in Pune’s April 23 polls, the voter turnout in the city, fell to a dismal figure of 49.84 per cent compared to 54.24 per cent in 2014.
Activists cite long weekend holidays that started from last Friday being a public holiday for Good Friday. While many citizen organisations and groups carried out extensive voter awareness programmes before the polling day, in many cases it failed to achieve the desired result.
Satish Khot, a city-based activist and vice-chairman of Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT) said, “The less turnout indicates that people have lost hope in the governance of the country. It is dangerous for democracy. Hence, the Election Commission should hold elections on such dates which are not close to any other public holidays. There is also a need for NGOs, housing societies and mohalla committees to carry out extensive awareness campaigns on the importance of voting. It is important to educate people on the necessity to exercise the right to vote for the better future of the country,”
Khot said that many residents have move to Pune, but have not registered as voters. “It becomes necessary for the company’s HR team to make it compulsory to enrol the employees for voting registration,” he said.
Sagar Abnawe, an entrepreneur from Katraj area, who went for a five-day trip to Goa and missed out voting, said, “As it was a long weekend, I planned a family trip to Goa. We have three voters in our family, but it hardly matters whether we vote or not as anyways PM Modi is going to win this Lok Sabha election again.”
Ravindra Sinha, secretary, Baner Pashan Link Road Welfare Trust said, “The electoral list in many areas contains many duplicate entries and names of voters who have shifted or don’t stay in Pune, thereby inflating the actual voter count. Many voters were depending on voter slips to be handed out, but this time in many areas no slips were handed out. Many voters who voted in 2014 did not check whether their names are in the latest electoral rolls and if deleted due to some reason such voters failed to fill the form in time for inclusion.
“ Many voters did not remove their names from their previous constituency (requires Form 7) and only filled Form 6 again, thereby resulting in rejection. Apart from a handful of housing societies, hardly any effort was taken by chairperson and secretary of housing societies as government designated booth level volunteers (BLVs) to compile the member and voter lists and encourage registration of voters,’ Sinha said.
The percentage of 2019 Lok Sabha Elections and (2014 Lok Sabha Elections)
Pune Lok Sabha constituency – 49.84 (54.24)
Kasba Peth – 55.88 (62.28)
Shivajinagar – 46.94 (53.06)
Vadgaon Sheri – 46.41 (49.89)
Kothrud – 50.26 (55.90)
Parvati – 52.07 (54.85)
Pune Cantonment – 48.79 (51.06)
