Half-hearted voters a bigger worry than heat in Indore polls

INDORE/BHOPAL: Along with summer heat, Election Commission is having to battle voters’ coldness in Lok Sabha polls in Indore — Madhya Pradesh’s largest electorate of 25.3 lakh.

With voting day looking like a one-way street after Congress challenger Akshay Kanti Bam’s shock pullout and saffron switch at the last minute, more and more people seem reluctant to step out into the 40-plus heat to cast a vote that “may not matter”.

TOI spoke with a cross-section of the electorate in the state’s commercial capital and the general feeling was one of indifference.

Going by what happened in Khajuraho, where a one-sided fight led to a 11.4% drop in polling — its highest ever — EC will be fighting an uphill battle getting the numbers up in Indore.

After Bam and seven others withdrew, there are 14 candidates left in the fray in Indore — BJP sitting MP Shankar Lalwani, one from BSP and 12 independents or members of little-known outfits. Lalwani has no real challenge.

“Polls in Indore have always been a bipolar battle between BJP and Congress. This time, the situation is unimaginable. It will be hard for people to turn out to vote,” ornithologist Ajay Gadikar said, predicting a rise in NOTA votes.

In 2019, Indore’s turnout was 69.3%, with 21 candidates in the fray. A senior election official, on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that even 50% voting this time could be considered ‘satisfactory’, given the circumstances.

There are around 45 lakh voters in these two MP seats, and half of them may be half-hearted.

Indifference was the sentiment in Khajuraho as well after the SP candidate Meera Yadav’s nomination was rejected during scrutiny because she hadn’t signed the papers, giving BJP state party chief, VD Sharma, a cakewalk. Congress, which had left the seat to SP as part of the INDIA bloc deal, is backing the Forward Bloc candidate but voters TOI spoke with had a sense of being left out of the festival of democracy. The turnout plummeted from 68.3% to 56.9%.

“There was a feeling of indifference across every section of electorate. My vote is in my native village, around 100km away. Honestly, I did not go to vote. I felt there was no reason or motivation for me to take the trouble of travelling that far to vote when it perhaps won’t matter,” Arun Dixit, a resident of Panna, told TOI.

In Indore, state chief election commissioner Anupam Rajan said ECI is working on an elaborate plan to improve voting percentage in the third and fourth phases after a drop in voting percentage in the first two. “In all states where polling has taken place, not just MP, voting percentage has been low,” he told reporters.

“We are trying to connect with voters and personally speak to them to motivate them to vote. Booth level activities will be held to promote voting. In urban Indore, we are getting in touch with RWAs,” he said.

Rajan acknowledged that harsh weather could be a deterrent to voters. “We have made arrangements to beat the heat at polling stations. We are also asking people to vote in the first half,” he said.

Indoreans seem more concerned that there is no heat left in the battle.

Hemali Abhole, a working professional said, “I am very disappointed with the way things are going. It doesn't feel like an election anymore. How will democracy work properly if there is no opposition?”

“Elections are designed to choose the best candidate, but when there is no opponent, elections become meaningless. For the first time, no interest is being shown in voting in a city that has the highest number of voters in the state,” Dr O P Joshi, a former principal.

Swati Jain, a motivational speaker, said, “In all the elections I have voted in so far, there were always two major parties and their candidates competing with each other. This time, that is not the scenario, so I have to think whether to go to vote at all.”

This sentiment was seen in Khajuraho constituency as well. Advocate Sanjay Sharma, a resident of Chhattarpur, said: “People like me, who feel it’s a duty to vote, went and voted. Even my elderly father voted, but there was a feeling of indifference all across since there is no contest at all.”

Govind Gautam, a trader in Khajuraho, said: “In our state, it’s mostly BJP vs Congress. There is always a loyal section of Congress voters but they stayed indoors as there was no party or alliance candidate. I noticed that many BJP voters, too, did not take the pain of standing in queue to vote as they felt their candidate would win anyway.”

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