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HomePoliticsDespite aggressive campaigning, voter turnout in 2 Maharashtra bypolls remains lukewarm

Despite aggressive campaigning, voter turnout in 2 Maharashtra bypolls remains lukewarm

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In Palghar, which witnessed a four-cornered contest, the turnout was around 46.5%. and in Bhandara-Gondia it was 42%.

Mumbai: Despite a shrill and acrimonious campaigning, the voter turnout in the two Lok Sabha bypolls in Maharashtra was tepid Monday.

In Palghar, which witnessed a four-cornered contest between the BJP, and its warring ally Shiv Sena, Congress and the local Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, the turnout was around 46.5 per cent.

In Vidarbha’s Bhandara-Gondia, where the main contest is between the BJP and NCP, backed by the Congress, the voter turnout was around 42 per cent.

Political analyst Surendra Jondhale said the lukewarm turnout could be largely due to disillusionment among voters considering how the poll was fought.

“In Palghar, the BJP’s candidate is a former Congress leader. The Shiv Sena’s candidate is from a former BJP family,” Jondhale said.

“In Bhandara-Gondia too, the sitting BJP MP jumped to the Congress. The NCP candidate was once with the BJP. This has added to voter disillusionment and they don’t think that this is going to be a decisive battle for them anymore,” he observed.

Jondhale was of the view that there was some kind of skepticism in the minds of the voters.

“The 2019 elections are not far, so voters might be feeling that whoever gets elected will not be their genuine representative,” he added.

Politicians also blamed the faulty EVMs, as several of them had to be replaced by back-ups, for a dent on the voter turnout. While there were reports of closure of polling booths due to malfunctioning machines, the office of the state chief electoral officer clarified that EVMs were being replaced as and when required and polling was going on peacefully in both constituencies.

Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan said, “The voting process was disrupted due to large-scale irregularities in the voting machines in both constituencies.”

“In Bhandara-Gondia, with nearly 25 per cent of the machines showing faults, a number of people could not vote despite waiting in long queues for hours,” he claimed.

Chavan alleged more than 25 per cent of the machines that malfunctioned were very suspicious, “especially since it is said these machines have been procured from Gujarat”.

Prashant Narnaware, collector, Palghar, said, “The problem in Palghar was with VVPAT machines and not so much with the voting machines.”

“We had anticipated that VVPAT machines may develop problems as the sensors can be sensitive to direct sunlight and harsh temperatures. We were prepared with 500 spares and had called for 96 engineers from the Election Commission, stationed at various booths to tackle any such issues,” he added.

A sharp fall in voter turnout

While the turnout in bypolls is usually lower than the main elections, Monday’s drop is sharp for Palghar and Bhandara-Gondia compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the turnout was 62.91 per cent and 72.31 per cent, respectively.

The figures are also lower than a couple of recent by-elections to assembly seats in Maharashtra that were nowhere nearly as aggressively fought as this one.

In 2016, 65 per cent electors voted in a bypoll to the Palghar assembly seat. Shiv Sena’s Amit Ghoda won the by-election, necessitated by the death of his father, Krishna Ghoda, the sitting MLA.

Similarly, nearly 57 per cent voted in the Tasgaon bypoll in Sangli, a seat that fell vacant after senior NCP leader R.R. Patil’s death. None of the major political parties contested the election, paving the way for Patil’s wife, Suman Patil, to be elected as MLA.

A political potboiler

Both the seats that went to bypolls in Maharashtra Monday were originally with the BJP. The by-election in Bhandara-Gondia was necessitated due to the resignation of sitting BJP MP Nana Patole who later joined the Congress, while the Palghar bypoll was held due to the death of the sitting MP Chintaman Wanga.

All parties contested the bypolls aggressively. Shiv Sena, wanting to show the seriousness of its resolution to contest 2019 polls independently against the BJP, inducted Wanga’s son, Shrinivas, and nominated him as the party’s candidate for the Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll.

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray held several rallies across the constituency, warning the BJP of a repeat of the Uttar Pradesh bypolls earlier this year where the ruling party lost, and bitterly criticising his ally.

The BJP, on the other hand, poached Congress’ Rajendra Gavit and nominated him as the party’s candidate, slamming the Shiv Sena as dishonest and a back-stabbing friend for fielding the late BJP MP’s son.

The party also brought in Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and union minister Smriti Irani to campaign for it in Palghar.

The war between the warring allies further escalated two days before the poll when Shiv Sena publicly played an audio clip of CM Devendra Fadnavis talking to BJP workers, asking them to use ‘saam, daam, dand, bhed’ to win the poll, prompting the Congress too to ask for action against the BJP for violating the poll code.

Fadnavis hit back by submitting the entire 14-minute clip to the Election Commission and accusing Shiv Sena of highlighting selective parts to distort facts.

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