Gujarat Elections : Urban apathy key to the low voter turnout of 60% in the second phase of polling

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): The second phase of the Gujarat assembly elections saw a 60% voter turnout, 12% less than the last election.

First-phase voter turnout in south Gujarat, Saurashtra, and Kutch was 63.14 percent, almost 5 percent lower than in 2017.

The Election Commission of India said ‘urban apathy’ dampened Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh voter turnout. In Gujarat elections, urban seats like Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mehsana, etc. had lower than 60% voter turnout.

Gujarat cities have shown similar urban apathy trend during voting on December 1 thus pulling down the percentage of voting.

The political parties including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), BJP, the Congress are worried over the lowest voter turnout in Gujarat elections since 2012 assembly election.

Political experts stated that the voters in Gujarat were nonchalant with the kind of election issues put forth by the political parties. But for the AAP’s ‘Kejriwal Guarantee’ for free electricity, education and health, both Congress and BJP failed to woo the voters during the election campaigning.

The BJP is running for the seventh consecutive term to form the government in Gujarat, while the AAP and Congress leaders are celebrating claiming the low voters turnout is all due to the anti-incumbency against the ruling BJP government in Gujarat.