Pune: From campaign issues to low turnout, when Assembly elections mimicked LS polls

While the voter turnout for Assembly polls is often considerably higher than Lok Sabha polls, as the issues in consideration are much more local, this time the turnout in the state was nearly the same as the turnout recorded during Lok Sabha polls held in April.

maharashtra election results, maharashtra assembly elections, pune assembly elections results today, bjp shiv sena, congress ncp

Voters queue to vote at a polling station in Pune. (Express Photo)

The campaign for the Maharashtra Assembly polls was dominated by national issues such as abrogation of Article 370, rather than state issues such as farm distress and unemployment. The voter turnout in the Assembly election, held on Monday, was also close to the general elections earlier this year.

While the voter turnout for Assembly polls is often considerably higher than Lok Sabha polls, as the issues in consideration are much more local, this time the turnout in the state was nearly the same as the turnout recorded during Lok Sabha polls held in April.

A comparison of voter turnout in the last four Lok Sabha and Assembly polls held in Maharashtra shows that the difference in turnout between the two polls ranged between 2.7 to 9 per cent, with Assembly polls recording higher turnouts than national elections.

The difference in the turnout in the two polls, however, was the lowest this year — 0.19 percentage points. The voter turnout in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha polls was 61.02 per cent and 60.83 per cent during Assembly polls.

During the Assembly poll campaign, the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir dominated the discourse as it was raised by BJP’s state and national leaders in almost every rally. While the opposition NCP — and to some extent Congress and MNS — tried to re-focus the discourse on local issues such an unemployment, economic slowdown, flood relief and farm loan waiver, national issues remained in focus in the campaign.

“It’s possible that since the election was fought like a national election, people came out and voted like they vote during parliamentary polls,” said Rajas Parchure, officiating director, Gokhale Institute of Commerce and Economics.

“However, a more likely reason for the dip in voter turnout is the lack of mobilisation by opposition parties, especially the Congress. Parties provide transport facilities, voters’ slips and help in resolving other issues pertaining to voting, which increases the voting percentage. This time, Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi were not active at all. Most of the mobilisation was being done by BJP, NCP and to some extent, MNS. This may have affected the voters as well,” said Parchure.