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Low turnout in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls
The assembly elections for Madhya Pradesh, which is among the four Hindi heartland states going to polls in staggered phases, concluded yesterday with just about 45 per cent of the over 36 million voters turning up to exercise their franchise.
- IANS
- Published: 23:27 November 27, 2008
Bhopal: The assembly elections for Madhya Pradesh, which is among the four Hindi heartland states going to polls in staggered phases, concluded yesterday with just about 45 per cent of the over 36 million voters turning up to exercise their franchise.
With 230 seats, Madhya Pradesh has the biggest assembly among the other poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Polling for Chhattisgarh's 90 seats concluded last week, while those for Delhi and Rajasthan are scheduled respectively for November 29 and December 4.
Elections are being held in six states and it is believed the outcome will be a referendum for the larger Lok Sabha battle early 2009. The other states going to the polls are Jammu and Kashmir and Mizoram.
Except Delhi, where the Congress is seeking a third term, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The polling was held yesterday when the state, like several others, was put on high alert in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Security was beefed up, and forces deployed in strength to ensure smooth polling.
These elections will put to test the BJP's claim to good performance in the states it rules, while a similar situation exists for the Congress in Delhi.
For Madhya Pradesh, the polls will also decide the political future of fireband Hindutva leader Uma Bharati who, after being expelled from the BJP, floated her own party and is fighting her first electoral battle.
Similarly, the poll results will be crucial for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is trying to replicate its social engineering formula of combining the upper castes with Dalits. This succeeded in the 2007 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Voters though were apathetic.
There were indeed long queues of voters in urban constituencies, but the response was subdued in vast rural areas.
Election officials said the voters included 42 per cent women and 48 per cent men. Ballotting was sluggish throughout the day with the turnout being only 31 per cent at the end of first six hours of voting. It picked up only marginally later.
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