Voter turnout may dip, courtesy low-pitch campaign

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 17

With the campaign of all main candidates being sluggish this time from Jalandhar and no high-voltage, issue-based speeches made by any candidate or his supporter, the voters in this Lok Sabha constituency do not seem to be enthused much to cast their vote.

For the same reason, the poll pundits are expecting a fall in vote percentage this time. Even after the campaign ended today with polling round the corner, people are saying that they are not able to make their mind as to whom they should vote for. In 2014 too, the poll percentage in NRI-hub Jalandhar remained at 67.08 that too when the Aam Aadmi Party was a big attraction for the youth.

Other than the supporters of main parties, the general voters are saying that they are not much interested and are finding it hard to make a decision. The age of the candidates being on the higher side, boring, low-pitch, repetitive speeches made by the local leaders, no involvement of senior party leadership from outside and no innovation seen in campaigns are perhaps some reasons why the voters have lost the excitement to vote.

The political slugfest in Doaba largely remained concentrated either in Hoshiarpur or Nawanshahr. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AICC chief Rahul Gandhi held rallies in Hoshiarpur, BSP chief Mayawati held a state-level campaign for Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) in Nawanshahr. Even the AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal did not hold any of his programmes in Doaba and it was only Manish Sisodia who remained here for the first half of the day to campaign for Justice Jora Singh (retd). He too left the roadshow midway to move to his next destination.

Union Minister Rajnath Singh came to Garhshankar and Hoshiarpur for two days. Rajasthan Deputy CM Sachin Pilot was in Balachaur, part of Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha eat. The only political leaders seen in Jalandhar were AICC spokesperson Charan Singh Sapra and SAD MP Naresh Gujral, both of whom are Jalandhar-based.

Leaders of all parties from Jalandhar agree that the constituency remained ignored by their senior leadership. Monty Sehgal, spokesperson, Punjab Petroleum Dealers Association, says, “Since no main party could field a good candidate from Jalandhar, no leaders turned up to back them. All the candidates were oldies and campaigned in a very lacklustre manner”.

Nachhatar Singh, a political observer, feels, “The dull campaign will have an impact on the voter turnout. The vote percentage is likely to remain low as people are not much enthusiastic to vote”.

“I have never seen such position in my life. This is dangerous time for democracy when we think that there is no choice,” said an industrialist. “We will supposedly go for NOTA this time,” he said. It is also being heard in the teaching community that they are fed up with both the parties, and they would go for NOTA. 

While it is a common phenomenon among the people to talk about elections and discuss politics, it has been a general talk in local gatherings that the voters are not able to find the right candidate or the right party that could give them good governance.

“Be it the industrialists, farmers or the contractual employees, everyone is holding dharnas and protests against the successive governments. No party cares about the life of a common man,” said Ishneet Kaur, a young voter.