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Urban Voters: The Election Commission has expressed deep concern over voter apathy in urban areas and said, 'The apathy of urban voters is weakening democracy.' Assembly elections are going to be held in Maharashtra and Jharkhand in the coming days. In the last assembly elections in Maharashtra, voting in urban areas was much lower than the state average. 'There is a very worrying situation in urban areas regarding voting.'
For a strong democracy, it is necessary that there should be more public participation in choosing the government, but this is not happening. A large number of voters are still not participating in every election. The situation is particularly worrying in urban areas, where turnout is about 20% below the state average.
Voting percentage is decreasing in cities
According to a report, in the 2019 Maharashtra elections, 62 out of the total 64 urban assembly seats witnessed lower voter turnout than the average voter turnout in the state. This included seats like Colaba, Kalyan, Versova and Andheri West, where turnout was about 20% less than the state average.
The average turnout in the recently held assembly elections in Haryana was 67.9%. 51.81% voting in Gurugram and 53.74% voting in Faridabad. Which was about 14 to 16 percent less than the average voting of Haryana. Panchkula, Ballabhgarh, Sonipat, Karnal and Badshahpur also witnessed 8 to 15% less voting than the average.
apathy of urban voters
This apathy of the urban voters has been seen not only in the national and state elections but also in the municipal elections held there. According to a report, in a city like Lucknow, there is an average of 59% voting in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Whereas only 39 percent voting took place in the civic elections. Similar situation can be seen in cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Patna and Ranchi. Such a situation is being created when urban voters seem to be the most vocal about their demands and issues.
Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday warned observers deployed for assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra to be alert to the risk of false statements damaging the election process, adding that misinformation can be countered immediately. He has sought immediate response to the misinformation.