AHMEDABAD: Low turnouts were seen even in constituencies with high-profile candidates. Barring four such constituencies, that is Rajkot West where Vijay Rupani stood, Vav (Shankar Chaudhary), Dabhoi (Siddharth Patel) and Viramgam (Tejashree Patel) have only registered an increase while 25 other such constituency saw a major Drop.
According to the data released, the biggest drop in voter turnout in percentage terms this year was in Botad constituency. The constituency recorded a drop of 11.69 Percentage Points compared to 2012.
Another constituency which had the second highest drop was Jamjodhpur, where cabinet minister Chiman Sapariya was contesting.
Of the 30 constituencies where either BJP ministers or important Congress candidates were contesting, 15 constituencies saw turnout drop between 0.1 and 3 percentage points, while there was an increase in four constituencies and the remaining 10 saw a droprangingfromfourto11 percentage points.
What was surprising was the 8.4 percentage points turnout drop in Dhoraji, where Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Lalit Vasoya is contesting. Political pundits say there is a lack of enthusiasm among voters which kept voters away.
However, in Patidar-dominated areas it may be that the Patidars may not have come out to vote. Dinesh Shukla, a former head of the department of political science at Gujarat University, says, “I feel the lack of enthusiasm was because voters may have felt the ruling party would return to power and hence voters may not have come out and voted. Further, it has been seen that there was lack of enthusiasm among the voters. Further, the marriage season also played a big role in the falling turnout.”
Congress spokesman Manish Doshi, says, “I feel voters were not attracted even with big names in the fray. The reason is that they are fed up with the system and don’t want to be a part of it again. Secondly, I feel the committed BJP voters stayed away and as would not want to vote for the Congress but are fed up with the ruling party.”
Source : timesofindia
