With urban apathy continuing through the first five rounds of polling, the Election Commission (EC) on Friday reminded urban voters of their right and duty to vote, urging them to break this trend despite the extreme heatwave and high humidity.
Over 11.13 crore voters, including 5.29 crore women, will cast their votes for the 58 Parliamentary constituency seats in six States and Union Territories on Saturday.
The commission has called upon voters to turn out in large numbers at polling stations and to vote with responsibility and pride.
Voters of Parliamentary constituencies in urban centres like Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad are specially reminded about their right and duty to vote and break the trend of urban apathy.
After the five rounds of voting on May 20, the EC lamented the lower voter turnout in urban cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Jhansi, Thiruvananthapuram, Howrah, and Madurai compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, calling it urban apathy.
An analysis of turnout shows that of the 409 seats where data can be compared with 2019, nearly two-thirds, or 258, have witnessed a lower percentage turnout this year and 88 (more than one in five) have seen even the absolute number of votes drop from five years ago.
The EC had noted that in the past, these cities have “suffered” from urban apathy as far as voting is concerned. On May 3 too, while referring to voter turnout in phase two, the commission had said it was “disappointed” with the turnout level in some metropolitan cities.
Last month, the EC assembled many metro commissioners here to devise a strategy to combat voter apathy. Urban and youth apathy is described as a phenomenon when young voters and those living in metros fail to turn up at polling stations on the election day.
Besides urban apathy, heatwave in poll bound States and UTs are major concerns to the authorities to improve voter turnout. According to the weather department, the maximum temperature is expected to be around 44 to 45 degrees Celsius which is likely to give feelings of over 50-52 degrees Celsius.
In a statement issued on Friday, the poll panel said the India Meteorological Department has predicted “no adverse impact” of cyclone in poll-going constituencies. But it gave no details.
Polling for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir will also be held on Saturday. The election there was postponed from phase three to six due to logistical issues owing to adverse weather conditions.
Among the key contestants are Dharmendra Pradhan (BJP) from Sambalpur (Odisha), Manoj Tiwari (BJP) and Kanhaiya Kumar (Congress) from North East Delhi, Bansuri Swaraj from New Delhi Maneka Gandhi (BJP) from Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) from Anantnag-Rajouri (Jammu & Kashmir), Abhijit Gangopadhyay (BJP) from Tamluk (West Bengal), and BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar (Karnal, Haryana), Naveen Jindal (Kurukshetra) Raj Babbar ( Gurugram) Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua ( Azamgarh) and Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurgaon).
So far, polling has been completed in 428 constituencies across 25 States and Union Territories. Phase V witnessed a voter turnout of approximately 62.19 per cent. In the corresponding phase during the 2019 polls, a voter turnout of 64.16 per cent was recorded as 51 seats across seven States went to the polls.
The Congress did not win even one of these 58 seats in the 2019 elections. In contrast, the BJP’s stakes are high as it had won 40, securing a vote share of more than 40 per cent on 47 seats in the last elections. This clearly shows Congress doesn’t have any strongholds in this phase.
What makes this phase particularly interesting is that all seven seats in Delhi and all the 10 seats in Haryana will go to polls.
Of the 58 Parliamentary constituencies, the BJP has a stronghold in five, Biju Janata Dal on four, and Trinamool Congress on two. The BJP is a strong contender in 30 seats. This means the party won the seat at least twice in the last three elections.
There are six seats where the victory margin was more than 35 per cent in the 2019 election, and the BJP won all of them. The other four seats with less than one per cent victory margin in the last election are Shrawasti in UP, Rohtak in Haryana, Sambalpur in Odisha, and Jhargram in West Bengal.
In West Bengal, voting will be held in the tribal belt JangalMahal region, spanning five districts. A hotspot for identity politics, the region sends eight representatives to Lok Sabha from Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura, and Bishnupur seats. Out of the eight seats, the BJP won five and TMC bagged three in the 2019 polls.
The seats going to the polls in Uttar Pradesh are Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi. From Sultanpur, BJP candidate Maneka Gandhi is seeking her ninth entry into the Lok Sabha.
The former Union Minister is up against the Samajwadi Party’s Ram Bhual Nishad and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Uday Raj Verma. In Azamgarh, incumbent MP Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua will be hoping to retain the seat for the BJP against the Samajwadi Party’s Dharmendra Yadav.
Jaunpur will witness former Maharashtra Minister Kripashankar Singh of the BJP taking on Samajwadi Party candidate Babu Singh Khushwaha and the incumbent MP Shyam Singh Yadav of the BSP.
