Election officials hopeful of over 70% turnout in Kasba Peth and Chinchwad assembly bypolls today

PUNE: Election officials are hopeful of more than 70% polling in the Kasba Peth and Chinchwad assembly bypolls on Sunday.
State's chief election officer Shrikant Deshpande told TOI on the eve of the elections that voter awareness activities had been carried out in both the urban assembly segments that registered below 55% turnout in the last polls.
He said he was hopeful that the "urban apathy theory" would be wiped out in this bypolls following programmes in the areas that registered low turnout in the last assembly polls.
"The percentage of polling during the last assembly polls was low and urban apathy reflected in it. We conducted a detailed analysis of the reasons behind the low turnout, held special awareness programmes and interacted with voters directly to come out and exercise their franchise," said Deshpande, after conducting rallies, street plays and lectures in both the assembly constituencies in a bid to push up the polling.
The chief election officer said if voters want to ensure a good candidate, they must come out to vote. He said voters should not face any issues in finding the polling booths because they were within a 2km radius in the city area and the vote was on a Sunday.
Of the total 780 polling stations (510) in Chinchwad and (270) in Kasba Peth, almost 50% registered low turnout in the 2019 assembly elections, said another election official. The lowest polling in Kasba Peth was in a booth in Budhwar Peth area. It registered only 25% turnout.
The lowest polling in Chinchwad was in the Sanghvi area. The booth registered 34% voters' turnout.
Under the Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) Programme, the election officials analysed the reasons for the low turnout in these areas and stressed on focussed awareness programmes.
In the 2019 assembly polls, the voter turnout in the Chinchwad assembly constituency was 53.59% and for Kasba Peth, it was 51.54%, both less than the voting in the 2014 assembly polls. Poll analysts said urban apathy was prevalent in both these constituencies in the last elections.
Former director of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics Dr Rajas Parchure told TOI that urban apathy was a standard term in the voting behaviour across the country.
"The turnout is expected to be better in the bypolls than the last elections because of voter awareness and high voltage campaigning in both these constituencies. The voter turnout should increase considerably. The high-level expectation for good governance will also help improve voters' turnout," he said.
Political analyst Chandrakant Bhujbal had a different opinion. He said urban apathy might continue. The large-scale migration of voters in the last two years might affect the turnout in the Chinchwad assembly constituency. In Kasba Peth, lack of interest in bypolls might have an impact on the polling, he said.
"We should estimate that there should be at least 40% turnout. Even as ECI has allowed 80-plus and differently abled voters to use postal voting service, the numbers have not been very high," he added.