Marginal increase in polling in hill dists
ANALYST SAY THE INCREASE IN VOTING PERCENTAGE IN WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT MANY PEOPLE HAVE RETURNED TO THE STATE DURING COVID EPIDEMIC.
DEHRADUN: Voter turnout for the February 14 assembly polls has marginally decreased in four districts, including three plain districts, and increased in nine districts, including eight hilly districts, compared to the 2017 assembly election.
This marginal increase in eight hilly districts is despite the fact that voting percentage for the whole state -65.37 % - is less than the 2017 polls, when the state had reported turnout of 65.60%.
The four districts, where voting has decreased marginally, are also the ones that have reported the highest voting percentage in the current election. These four districts where voting percentage has decreased marginally compared to 2017 polls include Udham Singh Nagar (-3.74%), Haridwar (-0.91%), Uttarkashi (-0.90%) and Nainital (-0.53%).
The nine districts that have reported increase in voting percentage include Chamoli (+3.26%), Bageshwar (+1.89%), Champawat (+1.23%), Rudraprayag (+0.85%), Pithoragarh (+0.70%), Tehri (0.66%), Almora (+ 0.64%), Dehradun ( +0.16%) and Pauri (+0.01%).
Anoop Nautiyal, founder of Dehradun-based non-profit organisation Social Development for Communities Foundation (SDC), who analysed the current election data with reference to 2017 polls, said biggest drop of 3.74% has been reported in Udham Singh Nagar district which had reported the highest voting turnout in 2017 election and second highest in the current election.
“In contrast to this, there has been marginal increase in voting percentages in the hill districts in 2022 compared to 2017 election. The biggest change is in Chamoli district with 3.26% increase. Bageshwar and Champawat districts have also reported over 1% increase in voting turnout,” he said.
Nautiyal said though there has been marginal increase in voting percentage in hilly districts, but 76% of hill constituencies (26 out of 34 seats in nine hilly districts) have reported a voting percentage lower than that of the state average of 65.37%.
“In most hill constituencies, the total average number of voters is in the 40,000 to 60,000 range. The total electors are quite low in the hill constituencies. While this needs further examination and ground research; it can be safely assumed that one of the biggest reasons for the overall low voter turnout in the hill districts is migration, even some returning might have led to marginal increase in comparison to 2017,” he said. Nautiyal said the election commission needs to evaluate its own performance as to why the voting continues to be low in Uttarakhand overall.
Political analyst Prof MM Semwal, who teaches political science at Garhwal University, said the increase in voting percentage in eight hilly districts was primarily due to the fact that many people have returned to the state during Covid epidemic.
“Also, the election commission held voting of people over 80 years of age and physically challenged at their homes. Apart from this, number of booths had been increased which plays an important role in hilly areas where commuting on difficult terrain is not that easy for the elderly,” he said.