Lok Sabha polls: EC eyes 80% turnout in state: 1,100 camps at college campuses to woo first-time voters

The CEO was presiding over the ‘Camp at Campus’ event for the first-time voters

The camps are a part of the Election Commission’s efforts to increase voter turnout in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Gujarat saw a 64.11 per cent of turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, lower than the national average of 67 per cent. Bharathi blames the trend on “urban apathy”. “Urban apathy is there. Ahmedabad is an example that records a low voting percentage,” she told The Indian Express.

Eyeing a target of over 1,100 such events in the state, the Election Commission has held 700 camps in the last 25 days.

“There are around 1,100 campuses in Gujarat and one ambassador has been hired in each of these to hold camps,” said Rinkesh Patel, Additional Collector at the office of CEO.

The Indian Express attended two such camps at the RRU and Vidyapith. Appealing to the students to participate responsibly in the election process, the Gujarat CEO said that if the response is good, they may not need to hold such camps next time.

Bharathi said that the target for Gujarat has been set at an 80 per cent turnout for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking with the RRU students, she said, “Why should we come to motivate you all? We have a job of conducting elections and not telling every single person to vote. Why should we do this? We have fundamental rights and duties in the Constitution; and in a democracy too, we don’t have compulsory voting, we can’t force anyone. If compulsory voting is there our job is finished. We don’t have to waste one hour in reaching here and do this camp at campus and go back. The main job is to conduct elections.”

Amid a lack of enthusiasm among students, Bharathi turned to the faculty members with the question —“Why should we vote?” She was again greeted with silence.    “Do you want to vote or not?” she continued, giving an example. “If  there are 100 people and only 50 vote, then the majority of these 50 will form the government,” said the CEO.

She went on to say, “Are you all happy that India is a democratic country or not? Or you should have something like China or some other country. Do you want democracy or not?”

Bharathi’s address at Tuesday’s camp was preceded by the  Registrar Shishir Gupta’s address and a presentation by SVEEP  (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation) co-ordinator Yogesh Parekh who showed three relevant videos to students.

Inaugurated in 2010 by then chief minister Narendra Modi as Raksha Shakti University, the RRU was taken over by the central government in 2020 by an Act of Parliament, renamed and designated as “an institute of national importance”, specialising in national security. “Nearly 80 per cent of the students are from other states,” Gupta told this paper.   The varsity has been registering lower turnout among female students.

In Gujarat alone, the CEO told the students, the Election Commission spends about Rs 500 crore on this election. When one faculty member said that most people were dissuaded because of the long queues, the CEO on a lighter note said people willingly “stood in queues for shopping and other places”.

The Gujarat Vidyapith, which was founded in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi, currently has Governor Acharya Devvrat as its Chancellor.  The session at the Vidyapith was conducted by SVEEP co-ordinator Parekh on Wednesday.

“Vote and serve” was the message at the Vidyapith by Parekh accompanied by Kamal Kumar Kar, regional director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), for a gathering of nearly 250 students.  “This election is a festival of democracy in which not only do we have to participate but also as NSS and Gujarat Vidyapith students help the society, family, senior citizens, PWD (people with disabilities) and women to reach the polling booths and vote,”  Kar said.