At 56.06%, Amritsar records lowest turnout in state again

GS Paul

Amritsar, June 2

Amritsar voters seemed unenthused if the lukewarm polling this time is anything to go by. The constituency marked the lowest turnout of 56.06 per cent in the state.

Out of the total 16,11,263 eligible voters, only 9,03,206 turned up at various polling booths across the state. The turnout included 4,87,101 men, 4,16,086 women and 19 third gender voters.

The key contest here is among Congress’ Gurjeet Singh Aujla, BJP’s Taranjit Singh Sandhu, AAP’s Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and SAD’s Anil Joshi. All of them campaigned aggressively, highlighting the issues of development, eradicating drug menace, revival of industry, re-opening India-Pakistan trade and efficient solid waste management.

These issues are actually perpetual poll planks that are seldom effectively addressed by the political parties once they win the poll, leaving the voters restive. Amritsar (West) recorded the lowest voter turnout of 48.10 per cent, closely followed by Amritsar (South) at 49.73 per cent. The rural belt fared better with Ajnala recording 66.03 per cent turnout, followed by Rajasansi (63.54 per cent) and Majitha (61.31 per cent).

The constituency has recorded the lowest voter turnout for the second time in a row. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it stood at 57.08 per cent.

In the 2017 bypoll, the constituency had registered over 70 per cent polling, while the figure was 68.18 per cent in 2014 poll. GNDU’s former professor and political analyst Dr Jagroop Singh Sekhon said the voters here had stopped taking interest in polling as they see it as an exercise to choose the “bad” from the bunch of “worst”.

Real issues ignored

No leader takes up the real issues…. Do the leaders talk about improving literacy rate? Health and education facilities are also not up to the mark. Their stereotype development agenda is actually hollow in nature. — Dr Jagroop Singh Sekhon,GNDU ex-professor