Apathy or out-of-sync voter list responsible for low voter turnout in Bengaluru?

Despite several campaigns and initiatives by the Election Commission and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to improve voter participation, Bengaluru did not buck the trend of low turnout during the polls. karnataka assembly election On 10 May.

Activists of expert and civic groups attributed the low turnout (Bengaluru: 55%, compared to 73.19% for all of Karnataka) to errors in the voter list, such as duplication, deletions, and mismatched entries, and voter movement from one booth to another. held responsible for. Name in Voter List

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Figures released by the Election Commission for Bengaluru on May 11 showed a voter turnout of 55%, excluding postal votes and household voting. There was less turnout in all the four mandals of the city.

Among the four divisions, the voter turnout was 55.5% in BBMP Central, 52.59% in BBMP North, 52.33% in BBMP South and 57.69% in Bengaluru Urban. In comparison, the polling percentage for Karnataka as a whole was 73.19%.

Election Commission’s concern is voter apathy

On 29 March, while announcing the schedule for the state elections, the Election Commission of India noted urban apathy in Karnataka. Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar had said that urban apathy is a major concern in Karnataka. The Election Commission had reached out to IT firms, colleges, start-ups to raise awareness about voting.

“To encourage greater voter participation, the election was scheduled for Wednesday, not Monday or Friday, to reduce the likelihood of people taking a day off and going out on a long weekend,” Kumar said. Is.”

However, the Election Commission’s strategy did not result in high polling percentage this year as well.

What is voter apathy?

Voter apathy is the perceived apathy among people eligible to vote in an election. This can happen when voters are disillusioned with the electoral process or with political parties and candidates, or when they do not feel that their vote will count, or when they do not care much about the issues around them.

In February 2023, just before the election dates were announced, teams of Election Commission officials visited Karnataka to meet local officials and identify polling stations where elections to the 2018 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections would be held. The voter turnout was the lowest, find out the reasons for the same, and come up with solutions to increase the voter turnout.

Voting in Bengaluru in the last elections

As against 72.44% polling in Karnataka during the 2018 assembly elections, around 55% polling was recorded in four divisions- BBMP South, North, Central and Bengaluru Urban in Bengaluru. Of the 8,615 polling stations in these four mandals (in 28 assembly constituencies), more than 88% are in urban areas.

In 2013, the IT hub recorded a voter turnout of 52.83%, against 71.83% in the state. In 2008, it was even worse, at 47.3% across the four Bengaluru electoral divisions.

While the voting percentage in BBMP South was 55.04% in 2013, it dropped to 51.98% in 2018. The voting percentage in BBMP North decreased from 56.58 in 2013 to 53.47 in 2018. Similarly, the voting percentage in BBMP Central fell from 57.71 in 2013 to 55.18 in 2018. In Bengaluru Urban, it fell from 62.03% in 2013 to 57% in 2018.

Name missing from voter list

Voter list analyst PG Bhat attributed the poor polling percentage to the threat of ‘missing names’ of genuine voters. “Election officials had deleted lakhs of entries in an attempt to clean up the rolls. However, there have been many erroneous deletions, thereby disenfranchising genuine voters. “Because the electoral system is not fair, voters become confused and disenfranchised, and this leads to low turnout.”

Shri Bhat said that the Election Commission should instead spend all its energy and time in conducting awareness campaigns and spend resources on correcting the voter list.

out-of-sync voter list

Citizen activists point out that improper deletions and duplicate entries are important reasons for low voter turnout.

“After every election, there is criticism of Bengaluru for low turnout. Do you know that in their last assembly elections, there was a voter turnout of 59% in Chennai and 51% in Mumbai,” said civic activist Srinivasa Alavilli.

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“The issue is not apathy but voter exclusion in mega cities which have a lot of migration and inter-city movement. Duplicate entries, voters going to villages or home towns to vote, inappropriate deletions – these are known issues. If the baseline is wrong then the percentage will also be wrong.

“This is not to absolve the citizens. The polling percentage definitely needs to improve, and political parties need to introspect as to why their manifestos and candidates have not been able to inspire voters to come out enthusiastically,” said Mr. Alvilli.

Best and worst performance in polling percentage in Bengaluru

This year, the worst three constituencies in terms of turnout are Bommanahalli (47.36%), CV Raman Nagar (47.44%), and BTM Layout (48.84%), while the best are Yelahanka (62.67%), Anekal (62.31%) . , and Yeshwantpur (63.23%).

Urban apathy in most capital cities of India

India has seen a more than four-fold increase in the number of voters since 1962, crossing 945 million in 2023, but nearly one-third of them did not exercise their franchise in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Amidst talk of taking the voter turnout to 75%, the Election Commission has acknowledged that people from urban areas, young voters and migrants were a major part of the 30 crore missing voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to the data, in the bottom three parliamentary constituencies of the selected states, which recorded the lowest voter turnout in the 2019 general elections, almost all constituencies are in the capital districts of the respective states, or are part of urban centres.

For example, Bangalore South, Bangalore Central and Bangalore North constituencies ranked in the bottom three in terms of voter turnout in Karnataka in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. All the three seats are in the capital.

This pattern can be seen in other states as well.

Below are three parliamentary constituencies in select states that recorded the lowest voter turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.