Why Bhubaneswar Records Low Turnout In Urban Polls? Don’t Blame Middle Class Alone

Why Bhubaneswar often records low turnout on voting day? Don’t blame the middle class, elitists or taxpayers. Rather, the existing system that ignores this class of voters, who are often bogged down by their hectic day-to-day activities, is responsible.

With the middle class turning unpredictable, it is the slum-dwellers who have turned the vote bank of most parties in the local election. Because, mere 2,000 votes often decide the fate of a candidate in the municipal wards.

Though many question, nobody blames the election procedures nor political systems that are largely accountable for the low turnout in recent times. While the officials are not able to reach the voters with voters’ slips, the political system does not take citizens into confidence while choosing their candidates.

Take the example of voters’ slips. In 2012 Delhi Assembly elections, the Election Commission undertook a massive exercise to get the slips reach the voters and it pushed up the turnout!

While in Bhubaneswar, whether civic election or general election, a lot of voters do not get the slips. In the absence of slips, many don’t go to pooling booths as they have to wait for long hours searching for their names in the list.

Many others abstain from voting as none of the candidates meet their expectations. In some other cases, the voters feel that the political parties have taken advantage of their support with the belief that any candidate put up by them will win the election.

So, it is wrong on the part of anybody to think that the literate, politically sensitive and elite citizens don’t turn out to vote. Rather, most voters prefer to remain absent than giving votes to wrong candidates.

As a result, about 45% of the total 6,90,239 voters exercised their franchise, deciding the fate of 393 candidates in 67 wards during the last civic election. It means that majority of voters did not vote in the election. In a way, it can be interpreted that this 55% of voters simply did not have trust in the performance of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation or they disassociated themselves from civic affairs.

The present civic polls may very well witness a repeat show of low turnout.

At the same time, the slum-dwellers cannot be blamed for voting like villages in panchayat election. The turnout from the slums is often high not because they are highly interested in the election process. They just want to secure their encroached land as well as freebies as part of social security measures.

If the political parties focus on selection of candidates, think beyond the vote bank politics and ensure voting slips to all voters, then perhaps Bhubaneswar may see a high turnout.

In this election, 7,25,765 voters in 67 wards will exercise their franchise at 705 booths in the city. Out of the total voters, 3,94,510 are male and 3,30,815 female, while 440 voters belong to ‘others’ category.