Despite voter awareness drive, Doaba sees decline in turnout

Aparna Banerji & Sanjiv Bakshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar/Hoshiarpur, Feb 5

A sharp decline in the voter turnout was witnessed across all districts of Doaba. Of the total 23 constituencies in the region, the poll percentage has dipped in 19, it remained the same in two (Sham Chaurasi and Garhshankar) and only one (Balachaur) constituency saw a marginal rise.

Notably, the respective district administrations ran an aggressive voter awareness campaign “SVEEP”. Social media celebrity Pummy Aunty had released a video to motivate voters. Poll mascots Hoshiar Singh and Master Syana Singh were created to spread “gyan” on the value of each vote, besides LPG cylinders carried a message for voters.

In Jalandhar, voters were even promised discounts on the purchase of new products such as mobile phones. Felicitation certificates and other schemes were offered to first-time voters to encourage them to turn out in large numbers.

In Hoshiarpur, DTO Jiwan Jagjot Kaur released the video of her song to motivate voters. The district’s “voter calendar” was released by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi. It carried six slogans written by Assistant Commissioner Navneet Kaur Bal and cartoons by local teacher Sandeep Singh. A voter mini marathon and a three-day voters’ carnival was organised in the last leg, but the voters reportedly failed to pay heed to all these measures.

Among the Jalandhar constituencies, only Jalandhar West saw a 4 per cent rise in voter turnout.

The district registered a poll percentage of 73.16 per cent this year against 75.57 per cent in 2012.

The sharpest decline has been witnessed in Phillaur (7 per cent), Bholath (6 per cent) and Mukerian, Dasuya, Kapurthala and Phagwara (5 per cent each).

Hoshiarpur District Election Officer Aninidta Mitra said: “We tried our best, but still we can’t comment on the reason behind fall in poll percentage. But there is no major change in the voting trend in the district. Women voting percentage of 76.42 is almost similar to that of last time, but male voters registered 68.86 per cent turnout, 8 per cent less than last time. Nevertheless, we are thankful to all those who have cast their votes”.

Jalandhar DC and District Election Officer KK Yadav said, “We tried our best, running campaigns for months to draw voters.”