Women behind record turnout; outvote men in 49 segments
State continues the trend that has been witnessed since the 1998 polls
SHIMLA:EVEN as the state created a new record of 74.6% turnout in the polls, analysis reveals that a major reason for this is women outvoting men, a trend that dates back to 1998 elections. In 49 of 68 (72%) assembly constituencies in the state, women’s voting percentage was more than men. Also, 77.8% of women exercised their franchise, against 71.5% of men. In total votes polled too, women were ahead of men with a share of 51.3%. Ironically, the number of women candidates in the fray is a minuscule 6% (only 19 among 337 candidates). Of 49.9 lakh electors (excluding over 30,000 service voters), 37.2 lakh cast their vote, including 19.1 lakh women. The voter list had 25.31 lakh males and 24.57 lakh women.
8 DISTRICTS LOGGED ABOVE 74% TURNOUT
Of 12 districts, eight — Sirmaur, Mandi, Hamirpur, Una, Bilaspur, Solan, Chamba and Kangra — had more than 74% of women come out to vote.
The highest was in Una (81.5%) and lowest in Chamba district (74.1%). All 15 segments in Kangra district recorded high women voter turnout.in the 1998 polls, 25.8 lakh votes were cast of total 36.3 lakh.
Women formed more than 50% of the total votes, at 13 lakh. In 2003 elections, the trend continued with 15.3 women voting against 15.2 lakh men.
In 2007, 16.8 lakh women exercised their franchise as against 16 lakh men. In 2012, men were again left behind with 16.5 lakh of them voting, against 17 lakh women.
Women activist Nirmal Chandel credited the awareness programmes that government, semigovernment and non-govern- ment organisations hold as reasons for the higher women turnout. “There may be many factors behind the high women voter turnout, but awareness is the key,” Chandel told HT over phone. “With the efforts we put in to empower women, they become more aware about their rights and duties and a vote is the strongest weapon one has,” she said.”
Meanwhile, of the total 14 third gender voters in the state, only four voted this time.
After the final revision of voters’ list, there were fourteen transgenders out of the total over 50 lakh voters. Two third gender voters exercised their franchise in Solan, one each in Paonta Sahib and Ghumarvin.