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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Urban Apathy

The numbers emerging from Maharashtra’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are striking, but they should not be read simply as a story of voter exclusion. They are also a warning about urban voter apathy and mobility that are making the electoral rolls increasingly difficult to maintain. Across Maharashtra, 20.68 million electors, or 21.14 percent of registered voters, have been excluded from the draft rolls after they could not be traced at their given addresses....

Urban Apathy

The numbers emerging from Maharashtra’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are striking, but they should not be read simply as a story of voter exclusion. They are also a warning about urban voter apathy and mobility that are making the electoral rolls increasingly difficult to maintain. Across Maharashtra, 20.68 million electors, or 21.14 percent of registered voters, have been excluded from the draft rolls after they could not be traced at their given addresses. Importantly, this figure includes 1.76 million voters identified as duplicates or already enrolled elsewhere, putting the actual number of exclusions for other reasons at more than 19 million. The urban numbers are particularly stark. In Mumbai, 34.75 percent of names have been deleted, while Thane has recorded the state’s highest proportion at 38.37 percent. These figures should prompt voters themselves to look in the mirror. The Chief Electoral Officer has said in interviews that the draft is not the final electoral roll. The exercise has identified people who were absent, had permanently shifted, were deceased, were enrolled elsewhere or fell into other categories. In many cases, the problem is straightforward as people move cities, change homes, migrate for work and fail to update their electoral records. But there is another practical complication. Booth Level Officers may visit homes during working hours only to find nobody there. A large urban population returns home after 7.30 or 8 pm. BLOs cannot realistically be expected to work indefinitely into the night, particularly when many are women. This creates a gap between an electoral system seeking physical verification and an urban population that is increasingly mobile and unavailable. But administrative difficulties cannot become an excuse for complacency. Nor can citizens assume that having voted in the past guarantees their name will automatically remain on the roll. Democracy does not merely require the right to vote; it requires voters to take the elementary trouble of ensuring that they remain registered. The election authorities have provided a clear remedy. Every voter should check the draft roll, verify the details and, if the name is missing, apply for inclusion through Form 6. Errors can also be corrected. The claims and objections process exists precisely because a draft roll is not infallible. Political parties, civil society organisations and resident associations have a role here too. Instead of treating every deletion as either an administrative conspiracy or a routine bureaucratic exercise, they should help citizens verify their entries and assist genuine voters through the correction process. The SIR has exposed a weakness in urban civic culture. Voters who care deeply about politics cannot afford to be indifferent about the most basic administrative act that makes political participation possible. The final electoral roll is not somebody else’s responsibility. It belongs to the voter.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

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