Ghaziabad sees its lowest turnout since ’14 LS polls
The fate of 14 candidates contesting for the Ghaziabad parliamentary seat was sealed when polling ended at 6pm Friday under phase 2 of Lok Sabha elections.
According to the provisional figures of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the constituency recorded a turnout of 49.65% till 10pm– its lowest ever turnout in the past three general elections.
The constituency went to polls under phase 2 along with seven other seats of Uttar Pradesh – Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Aligarh, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahr and Mathura. As per the ECI, the eight seats registered an average polling of 54.85% till 10pm.
The final polling percentages are expected by Saturday, said Ghaziabad district officials.
In 2014, the Ghaziabad seat recorded a turnout of 56.94% while it was 55.86% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
According to ECI’S provisional figures, the polling on Friday in Ghaziabad stood at 10.67% till 9am, 23.19% till 11am, 33.94% till 1pm, 41.13% till 3pm, 48.22% till 7pm, and 49.65% till 10pm.
“The low turnout was largely due to voters in city areas staying away from polling booths. The summer heat also played a part even though we had made proper arrangements at polling booths to shield voters from the
sun and heat. We tried our best to encourage and motivate voters to come out and vote. There were issues during polling and we had to change 17 EVM units, 40 control units and 107 VVPAT units in different segments,” said Ranvijay Singh, additional district magistrate, Ghaziabad.
In the Ghaziabad seat, the two urban segments of Sahibabad and Ghaziabad recorded lowest voter turnout at 42.57% and 47.86%, respectively, till 10pm.
The three remaining rural segments fared better with a turnout of 54.09% in Loni, 53.80% in Muradnagar and 59.17% in Dhaulana (part), till 10pm, showed the ECI’S provisional figures.
The Ghaziabad seat has 14 candidates in the fray and prominent among them are sitting MLA Atul Garg from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Dolly Sharma from the Congress and
Nandkishor Pundhir from Bahujan Samaj Party.
The phase 2 polls is crucial for the Congress and Samajwadi Party, who are part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), as neither party could win any of the eight seats in 2019. Seven of these eight seats went to the BJP while Amroha went to the BSP.
The low turnout in Ghaziabad on Friday also disturbed calculations of political parties.
“The low polling was also a result of the slow pace of voting at many polling booths. The queues built up and many voters returned disappointed as they could not handle the scorching heat. There were issues of EVM malfunctioning in areas such as Muradnagar, Morta etc, which also deterred people from voting. Since the turnout is low, we will carefully analyse the pattern to see how we fared,” said Vinit
Tyagi, district president, Congress.
The office bearers of the BSP said that low voter turnout in urban segments will hurt the BJP.
“They have more voters in urban segments and a low turnout means that their voters did not come out to vote. Voters, generally, were not very enthusiastic to come out and vote. Our core vote bank however stepped out in large numbers, especially in rural segments,” said Dayaram Sain, district president, BSP.
The BJP candidate remained “hopeful of a record win” despite the low turnout.
“Even with the low turnout, I am expecting about 60-70% votes to be in our favour,” said Atul Garg, BJP candidate.
Political experts said low turnout was a matter of concern for the administration as well as for the ECI.
“They should find the reasons for the low turnout in phases 1 and 2 in western UP,” said KK Sharma, associate professor (history) from CCS University, Meerut.
“Low turnout in rural segments may be due to the fact that farmers and workers are harvesting wheat and sowing sugarcane crops. Summer heat may also be another reason for people staying away. Also, it was expected that urban voters will treat the day as a bonus holiday and take an extended break over the weekend,” Sharma said.