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What is the reason for pathetic voting % in Bangalore south?

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Written By E.R. Ramachandran - 27 April, 2009

Bangalore Democracy Elections Voter ID suggestion Election Commission Everything else

What is the reason for abysmal voting pattern in Bangalore which must be rated from 'poor' to 'terrible'. Despite tremendous efforts on creating awareness on 'Need to vote' in both electronic and Print media, voters especially the urban  middle and upper middle class , who complain' maximum 'on any issue ,have stayed away from exercising their right to vote.

This is a serious matter which needs introspection. where have things gone wrong?

Times of India launched a major campaign on 'Lead India', proclaimed a great success, but citizens just do not care.

Tatas launched' Aap Sorahe Hain' campaign for months and its impact in urban area has been a disaster.

What is the solution?

Why not make voting compulsory?

COMMENTS

Disappointed

nl.srinivas - 27 April, 2009 - 05:17

  Even after publicising through radio, tv ,internet the response has been very disappointing. One of the reasons many gave was it's not going to make any difference or there are no suitable candidate. But what these people fail to understand is the parties give a lot of importance to voting pattern. Even if significant  number of people voted for Captain Gopinath then it would have put pressure on which ever candidate won to do some work in the constituency since the party sees a change in the mind of the voters.  If the "informed" voters stay away we are giving a free run to all the politicians. Remember once Kumaraswamy said "why should I bother about bangaloreans since most of them do not vote" and caused huge uproar. Unfortunately  it has just remained that, an uproar and no action.





Allowance for accuracy/absence

idontspam - 27 April, 2009 - 05:26

I am hoping this is 44% of the voters list and not the population. Giving allowance of 2% for accuracy of the list and 8% for people like me who are temporarly out of country. I think it is still pathetic.

EC must look at providing voting patterns by area, after the results are out. all they need is a spreadsheet. It may dispel a lot of prejudices and throw some surprises? There is more guesswork in the below article

Bangalore voters' apathy puzzles candidates, analysts

Shame on Bengaluru, esp Bengaluru South Voters

Vasanthkumar Mysoremath - 27 April, 2009 - 08:30

We thought that this LS elections, voters had developed -

- an awakening,

- an awareness,

- an enthusiasm, 

- an opportunity to punish erring politicians

- blah, blah, blah.

44.73 per cent turn out - no words to express voters abberation of constitutional right to exercise our sacred franchise.

Who are responsible?  Only a postmartem will reveal the cause of 'death of democracy' in Bengaluru North 46.78, Bengaluru South 44.73 and Bengaluru Central 45.25 per cent.

I for one, am totally disappointed, in particular, with Voters of Bengaluru South, who have admirably proved their Indian citizenship by being in namma Bengaluru.  I always thought that they are more educated, learned, well placed, emboldened with high tech knowledge, highly cultured, responsible and valued sons/daughters of Bharat Mata,...but.....?!%$#* 

- Vasanthkumar Mysoremath

 

Voters' Apathy

Naveen - 27 April, 2009 - 08:55

I am reproducing what I stated on another blog with regard to the Poor Voter Turnout :

Shame on Urban Bangalore !

The writeup by Trilochan Sastry states the following as reasons for the very poor voter turnout :

There’s a disconnect between the urban middle-class voter and the political process. The middle class feels: ‘I love democracy but I hate politics; India should be a democracy but I will not vote’. There are people proudly tell me: ‘I have not voted for 15 years’. How do you expect India to survive as a democracy if you don’t vote? The educated, thinking class is abdicating its responsibility.

How True, Could'nt agree with him more on his reasoning.

When EPIC cards were being issued, there were long queues for collection of the cards, but when the time came to cast votes, the queues suddenly became inconvenient for most !

An option that should be seriously considered is to penalise the urban "Non-Voters", starting with some token measures such as production of proof of having voted when their children apply for school admissions, when registering for PAN cards, when applying for BDA sites, when applying for passports, opening bank accounts, applying for building plans, ration cards etc. etc.

This seems the only way out. PAN cards have now become mandatory for most financial matters, & similarly, EPIC & proof of Voting must also be made mandatory, starting with Urban areas.

Need of the hour

idontspam - 27 April, 2009 - 19:51

I agree with Syed, the need of the hour is plain and simple "go out and vote" to become a habit and culture. Otherwise since you dont care, like Devesh says accept the outcome and quit complaining.

You cant force people but you can appeal to their concience. Publish area wise statistics, get as small as possible on exposing the voting percentages and publish the figures. Put embarassing colors to indicate apathy. Hurt the concience so people take more interest in voting. Other than that dont waste time on extraordinary measures, accept the verdict of the people who cared to vote

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