Amidst naxal threat heavy turnout observed during the assembly poll in remote part of Bermo and Gomia constituency on Tuesday. Poll passed off peacefully with no untoward incidents being reported in duo constituencies, said Uma Shankar Singh DC cum chief electoral officer Bokaro.
With brisk voting which was began at 7 am several remotes village of Gomia constituency witnessed a record voter turnout of 72 percent. The voting ended at 3 pm, there were still voters (80 to 125) queued up to exercise their franchise.
It’s the impact of SVEEP which saw a huge rise in voters participation even in the naxal infested zones, said Singh.
With 64 % voters turnout Bermo constituency witnessed 4 percent rise while Gomia witnessed 5 % rise with 68 percent voter’s turnout, he said. “But the voter turnout in the urban area was low while rural pockets observed huge rise in voters”, added Singh.
Amidst high turnout male voter’s participation was 66 percent while female voters’ participation observed 67 percent in the both constituencies, Singh said.
Three EVMs were found defunct including two in Bermo (booth no. 49 and 133) and one in Gomia (booth no 88), replaced by 10 am and then polling were continued, he said.
Singh along with election officials expressed their helplessness over improved figures. “We did our best to reach out to maximum voters with SVEEP”, added Singh.
Notably, SVEEP was first rolled out in 2009-2010 assembly elections and in the last three years, voter registration, especially among youth, has gone up from 15 percent to 35 percent and almost all assembly elections held since 2010, recorded high voter turnout with greater participation from youth and women, said an official.