266 seats with low turnout: EC orders action plan

WITH THE first phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections just two weeks away, the Election Commission on Friday said it had identified 266 constituencies where voter turnout was lower than the national average in 2019, and drafted action plans to boost participation.

The EC, comprising CEC Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Friday chaired a meeting with municipal commissioners and district election officers from constituencies with low turnout. At the meeting, the CEC said a total of 266 parliamentary constituencies — 215 in rural areas and 51 in urban — with low turnout had been identified. He asked the officials to focus on improving facilities at the polling booths, including better queue management and shelter parking in congested areas, an EC statement said. He also asked them to involve stakeholders like RWAS, local icons and influencers to encourage voters. The officials were asked to prepare booth- wise action plans to increase turnout, instead of a “one- size- fits- all” approach. The EC highlighted some of initiatives under its SVEEP programme, including election awareness messages on public transport, sanitation vehicles and utility bills.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 11 states/ UTS — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand — had a turnout less than the national average of 67.40%. Among the 50 rural constituencies with the lowest turnout, 40 were recorded in two states — Uttar Pradesh ( 22) and Bihar ( 18).

Overall, of 50 seats with the lowest turnout in 2019, 17 were in major cities, the EC said. The poll panel said the trend of low turnout in urban areas has been seen in the past few Assembly elections as well. For instance, in the 2022 Gujarat elections, the Gandhidham constituency, “which has industrial establishments, recorded lowest polling percentage of 48.14%, a sharp decline of almost 6% from the last election in 2017, recording a new low”, it said. In Himachal 2022 elections, Shimla recorded lowest turnout at 63.48% as compared to state average of 75.79%.

“It has been observed that all rural Assembly constituencies have voted more in percentage terms than urban Assembly constituencies of Surat. The difference in lowest urban AC of Surat with highest rural AC is as much as 25%. Similarly, in State Assembly Election of Karnataka 2023, AC Bommanahalli in Bangalore ( Bangalore South) recorded lowest VTR of 47.5% as compared to State Average VTR of 73.84%,” EC said.