High voter turnout a challenge in Praygraj this time too

Three urban assembly segments of district have recorded lowest polling in many previous polls

PRAYAGRAJ : With voting percentage in the first four phases of the ongoing UP assembly polls failing to match 2017 figures, ensuring higher voting percentage than last time in Prayagraj is a challenge that elections officials are working hard to attain this time around.

“During the past five polls, the voting percentage in the district having 12 assembly seats has fluctuated from 51.91% in 1996 to 47.75% in 2002 and 43.94% in 2007 before rising to 55.35% in 2012 only to dip to 54.68% in 2017,” said poll analyst prof MP Dube.

“Election Commission of India (ECI) statistics show that while in 2012 Koraon seat with 61.66% polling was the highest in the entire state, 2007 witnessed Allahabad North assembly segment recording mere 24% voting—the lowest in UP,” added prof Dube.

“If one takes the past five state polls into consideration, the lowest turnout was recorded in three urban assembly constituencies—Allahabad North, Allahabad

West and Allahabad South,” he said.

This is the reason why this time a special focus of the district election officials is on these three assembly seats to get voters to come out and exercise their franchise on February 27.

“All efforts are being made to motivate voters in all assembly constituencies of the district with special attention on those segments that witnessed lower voting percentage in past editions of the polls,” said district magistrate and district election officer, Prayagraj, Sanjay Kumar Khatri.

In 2017 elections, even after all the voter awareness programmes the voting percentage of the district had not improved as compared to previous assembly elections. ECI records show that Allahabad North has witnessed least percentage of voting the past five state elections continuously despite the area being dominated by the well-educated and the intellectual class. Allahabad

University, Motilal Nehru National Institute of technology (MNNIT) among other top academic institutions are all located in this assembly area.

The three urban constituencies of the districts had recorded less than 50 percent polling in 2017 elections. In sharp contrast, trans-Yamuna area of Prayagraj has been scoring well in the last two assembly elections i.e. 2012 and 2017 as the assembly constituencies of this region have topped in terms of voting percentage.

The new assembly seat of Koraon was formed in 2012 and that year Koraon topped not only in the district but in the entire UP with 61.66% of voting.

Koraon was also in the race for number 1 in the district in terms of voting in 2017 but by a slight margin, Karachhana assembly constituency of transYamuna area had bagged number one position.

In 2017, the voter turnout was 59.92% in Karachhana and 59.58% in Koraon. Bara assembly constituency had stood third with 59.26% polling.

Since 1996, Allahabad North, West and South have been among the least polled seats in the district while Koraon, Karachhana, Bara, Handia and Pratappur have been the top performers.