Voter apathy: Karnataka voting on a Wednesday so that poll day doesn't become part of long weekend
The Election Commission has deliberately scheduled the polling for the assembly elections in Karnataka on a Wednesday (May 10) so that urban voters cannot take advantage of the voting-day holiday by clubbing it with weekend breaks and going out on a tour instead of turning up to exercise their franchise.
“Date of the poll has been kept on a Wednesday. Had it been on a Monday, it would have come with a holiday of Saturday and Sunday. And, had it been on a Tuesday, (it would have been easy for many to) take a day's off and go out...," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told journalists, while announcing the date of polling for the assembly elections in Karnataka. “(As the polling is on) Wednesday, (it) is (going to be a) little difficult,” he added.
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The urban apathy towards voting is one of the major challenges the EC has identified in Karnataka. The overall turnout in the state assembly polls went up from 71.83 per cent in 2013 to 72.44 per cent in 2018. It, however, went down from 55.04 per cent to 51.98 per cent in BBMP (South), from 56.58 per cent to 53.47 per cent in BBMP (North), from 57.71 per cent to 55.18 per cent in BBMP (Central) and from 62.03 per cent to 57 per cent in Bengaluru Urban, which together has 28 assembly constituencies with 88 per cent of the total 8615 polling stations located in urban areas.
“I am sure, people will not sleep for that long. They can't go out now (since the polling has been on schedule midweek)...they'll come (to cast votes at the polling stations),” said the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
The EC has of late been taking note of the reluctance of the voters in the cities to go to polling stations and cast votes, not only in Karnataka, but also in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as well as in other states.
The commission noted that while overall poll-percentage in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections in November 2022 was 75.78 per cent, it was just 62.53 per cent in the state capital Shimla. Similarly, while the overall state turnout during the December 2022 assembly elections in Gujarat was 64.33 per cent, it was down to 57.12 per cent in Rajkot and 47.86 per cent in Gandhidham. Nine of the 20 parliamentary constituencies with lowest turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were urban – Hyderabad, Patna Sahib, Secunderabad, Kalyan, Pune, Thane, Mumbai South, Kanpur and Allahabad.
The CEC said that the commission had roped in academic institutions, Information Technology companies, Resident Welfare Associations in Bengaluru and other urban centres in Karnataka to raise awareness among voters and encourage them to turn up at the polling stations and cast votes on May 10.