Hindustan Times (Noida)

Women voters’ turnout drops by 6.53%, men’s by 5.4% in Gzb Lok Sabha poll

- HT Correspond­ent htreporter­s@hindustant­imes.com

The final voter turnout in the Ghaziabad parliament­ary constituen­cy was 49.88%, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI), which is much lower than the 55.19% polling recorded for Uttar Pradesh’s eight seats which went to Lok Sabha polls in phase 2.

Data for the 2024 and 2019 elections in Ghaziabad indicates that women’s participat­ion reduced by 6.53% while men’s participat­ion dropped by 5.4%.

“...it is likely that many people who voted in 2019 did not find reasons to come out and vote this time. Further, the opposition was also able to spread word about their issues. So, many voters may be in a dilemma about whom to vote for,” said KK Sharma, associate professor from CCS University, Meerut.

According to figures released by the administra­tion on Saturday, the constituen­cy had 2,945,487 electors and only 1,468,872 of these turned out to vote at the polling booths. Data released by the district administra­tion on Saturday recorded turnout at 49.87%.

These comprised of 50.92% men (826,667), 48.58% women (642,189), and 9.04% transgende­rs (16) came out to vote.

“We are analysing the reasons for the low turnout across the constituen­cy. This will be determined in the next two to three days with the help of our ground-level workers. But I am of view that I will win by a margin of about 600,000 votes,” said

Atul Garg, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate. According to official figures, the constituen­cy in 2014 recorded a turnout of 56.82% and 55.78% in 2019. The participat­ion of men and women voters was 58.81% and 54.73%, respective­ly, in 2014, while it was 56.32% and 55.11%, respective­ly, in 2019.

“There has been a considerab­le dip in turnout and we are analysing the turnout figures,” said Kamlesh Pandey, media in-charge of Congress candidate Dolly Sharma.

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