Efforts made by Election Commission of India to motivate voters to cast their votes during elections lastly started giving results pulling the total voting percentage in Ranchi to 58.76. Best results were seen in Giridih, recording a 16 percent rise in voting percentage, followed by Ranchi and Jamshedpur with 14 percent increase in the voting percentage. Overall voting percentage however, remained to be 61.73 during the polls in Jharkhand on Thursday.
“The response among the urban voters was quite encouraging for us and if this trend continues, we will see more people coming out for polls during Assembly elections this time,” said Chief Electoral Officer PK Jajoria. According to Jajoria, the most significant response came at Giridih recording 16 percent increase in the voter percentage. 62 percentage of voting was recorded in Giridih as compared to 46 percent during 2009 General elections.
Ranchi and Jamshedpur also recorded a significant rise of 14 percent during these elections, added Jajoria.District administration was also quite satisfied with the voting percentage this time.
“The response among the urban voters reportedly was quite encouraging. Though, I do not have the exact figures, but the voters must be complemented for coming out of their homes to cast their votes,” said Ranchi DC Vinay Kumar Chaubey.
Ranchi SDO Amit Kumar was also of the view that the arrangements made by the administration on the booths led to the increase in the voting percentage. “The result of the regular efforts made by the district administration for pulling the urban voters of their homes was finally visible during polling, it was all due to the facilities provided to the voters at the polling booths and the drive of election commission to boost up the polling figures,” said the SDO. The voters also responded accordingly to the appeals made by the EC.
“I had been getting several SMS on my mobile phone for the last three days appealing people to cast their vote, I thought, I must vote and see the change,” said Jitendra Tripathy. He decided to vote this time after being influenced by the repeated appeals made by the elections commission for actively take part in the electoral process.
People started coming to the booths before it was actually started at 7 am to beat the heat. “I thought I should vote in the morning as early as possible to avoid sunlight which intensifies after 9 am. I will use the rest of the day for watching TV or do some pending work at my home,” said a private school teacher Chetrali Banerjee. Most of the urban voters however, decided to vote on the issue of development.
“We have nothing to do with politics, we are only concerned with development, more developed the country, more prosper will be state,” said an executive with a private company Mukesh Patel. Moreover, it’s a constitutional duty of a citizen to exercise his franchise, he added. Happy with the easy voting processes at the polling booths, some of the old voters were quite impressed with the hassle free voting conducted at the polling stations.
“Unlike before, this time it has become more easier for a us to cast our vote, as we did not had to stand in long queue for hours to cast our votes,” said a retired government official D Jha. Many thanks to the election commission for making such arrangements, he added.