Haryana’s hot seats see higher polling, urban areas lag amid string of holidays

Keenly contested seats as also the rural segments saw increased polling in the Haryana Assembly elections yesterday. A string of holidays close to the day of polling seems to have put a dampener on the turnout in urban pockets.

A turnout of 67.9 per cent, marginally lower than that of the last elections, was recorded in the 90 Assembly segments.

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In Ambala Cantt, witnessing an interesting contest between BJP leader and former minister Anil Vij and Independent candidate Chitra Sarwara, 64.65 per cent votes were polled. Former minister Aseem Goyal’s seat, Ambala city, too recorded 63 per cent voter turnout.

Gurugram with 51.5 per cent turnout, Karnal with 56.37 per cent, Hisar with 61.44 and Badkhal as also Faridabad with just 47.29 and 53 per cent turnout, respectively, saw “poor” voting in comparison to rural seats.

The two seats in Panchkula district saw contrasting voter turnout with the urban Panchkula seat recording a polling percentage of 59.37 while Kalka, essentially rural, saw a turnout of 72.07 per cent.

The primarily rural seats of Mullana and Naraingarh within Ambala district saw 71.04 and 73.10 per cent voter turnout; Loharu, the seat of former minister JP Dalal, recorded a poll percentage of 79.30; Tohana, JJP-turned-BJP leader and former minister Devender Babli’s Assembly segment, recorded 77 per cent, Tosham had a turnout of 72 per cent while Barwala and Narnaund in Hisar had a poll percentage of 73.56 and 74.14 respectively.

With holidays on October 2 and 3 for Gandhi Jayanti and Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti respectively, a weekend on October 5 and 6 and one working day in between, the urban voters failed to show up on polling day rescheduled for October 5. “By taking one leave, you could get five days off. In my district, October 4 was also declared a holiday for preparations. This meant almost an entire week was off for the people employed in the government sector or school students. The Election Commission of India completely miscalculated the rescheduling of polls from October 1 to October 5. This has found reflection in the number of urban voters who made it to the polling booths. In comparison, the rural voters showed up in large numbers,” says Kushal Singh, Principal of Indira Gandhi National College, Ladwa, and a teacher of political science.

From the Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Prof Ashutosh says, “Successful electoral democracies all over the world qualify the “two-turnover” test. It means that more often than not, no party manages to remain in power for more than two terms at a stretch. This Samuel Huntington hypothesis applies to recent India also with few exceptions. Also, a high turnout is considered indicative of voters’ proclivity to look for change in election studies literature,” he said, adding that 67 per cent turnout cannot be considered “low” by any standards.