Poor turnout: voters blame ‘wrong’ candidates

“As administrators,we did everything possible from correcting voters’ list,issuing identity cards,setting up helpline to carrying out awareness campaigns,but they did not help in ensuring a big turnout,” Band said. Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Asheesh Sharma said sensitising people to the importance of voting will help.

If the administrators are pointing at voters’ apathy,a cross-section of the citizens fault the choice of candidates by political parties for the pathetic turnout in urban areas. “There is no such thing as lack of awareness among voters. People are well aware of the candidates and their credentials. If the candidates’ credibility is under cloud,people will show their resentment by not coming out and voting. This is what happened during this election,” said Dinesh Castellino,vice-president,(Legal) and Company Secretary,Cummins India Ltd.

If the voter turnout this time was poor,said Castellino,it reflects the wrong choice of candidates by political parties.

“If voters feel there is some ray of hope,some light at the end of tunnel meaning the presence of an honest candidate,they won’t mind spending their valuable time in coming out and voting for him or her,” Castellino added.

Echoing his views,Harshad Nimbalkar,a prominent lawyer in the city,said voters always show respect to an educated and non-corrupt candidate. “Give the voters an educated and candidate with a clean image,see how they vote overwhelmingly.”

Going further,advocate Sushil Mancharkar said candidates should be blamed for the pathetic turn-out. ”

Almost all candidates focused their energies on slum areas while ignoring people living in high rise buildings. The candidates showed their disinterest for people living in flats and then people showed their apathy by remaining away from poll booths. You need to adopt a personal approach to make people vote for you,” said Mancharkar,while stressing on graduation as a minimum qualification for contesting an election.

Mukund Sarda,principal of New Law College,Erandwane,has a different take. “Make voting compulsory,” he argues. “If people don’t vote don’t give them ration and LPG cylinders. Similarly,the salary of government servants who did not vote should be stopped,” he said.

Yet another measure,said Sarda,is re-introducing elections in colleges. “If students don’t understand election process and their importance,they will never understand the importance of their one precious vote,” Sarda said while blaming the poor turnout on delay in issuing voter identity cards and mistakes in voters list. Civic activist Vijay Kumbhar too said voting should be made compulsory. ”

And those who do not vote should be penalised unless they have valid reasons to do so.” Indira Raghavan,a resident of Somwar Peth,said voters have lost faith in candidates’ ability to deliver. “Come to the area where I live and you will realise why residents do not believe in the politicians. Low voter turnout reflects the anger of the voters,” she said.

Astro-numerologist Anupam Kapil has his own take on the pathetic turnout of voters Pune. “If any election is held after November 22,there will be a good turnout of voters. Before November 22,the Jupiter is afflicted by Rahu that creates chandaalyog.

During this yog,there is nefarious activities. It means people are not comfortable,they are confused which reflected in their apathy towards voting,” he said.