Mathihalli Madan Mohan
Senior Journalist and Columnist
Hubli 580032
Uncared and
Ignored
HUBLI, 06th
Apr 2013.
It may look
strange but true. The number of people staying away from participating in the
parliamentary system of governance in the state is on the increase
On an average one out of every three voters in the state
prefers not to cast is vote in the
election, allowing the system to function on the basis of participation of 2/3rd
of the electorate.
In a way,
this is nothing new. The apathetic attitude for a whole hearted participation
in the democratic process has been a fact of life of the Karnataka electoral
process since the beginning. And the situation did not improve with the rise in
the electorate and poll turn out. Along with the increase in electorate and
poll turn out the number of people not participating in the poll has also been
going up in disconcerted manner. .
The impact
of the absence of large number of voters was not felt for the first five
elections in Karnataka since the formation of the state, since the Congress had
unquestioned sway, with no opposition combination anywhere near the ruling
party to pose any challenge.
But the
things have begun looking different since 1983, which should go as a watershed
in the political history of Karnataka, when Karnataka voters opted for a
bipolar political system to end the political hegemony of the Congress and
voted for the first Non Congress government to assume office in the state.
Since then power has been changing between Congress and Non Congress
combinations at regular intervals, thanks mainly to the consolidation of the
anti Congress votes.
The
scenario over the past three decades spanning over seven elections gives a
clear indication of the developing dangerous trend. Going by the percentages alone, it looks as
if the uniform trend has continued with a minor variation here and there. But
the real numbers gives the story a different dimension.
Between
1963 and 2008, as the table given along with this, the electorate has gone up
from 201.73 lakhs to 403.63 lakhs,
the poll turn up increased from 132.46 lakhs to
261.16
lakhs. The number of absentee voters has almost touched 150 lakh marks.
The 2008 elections was the second
water shed in the political history of Karnataka, with BJP being voted to power
for the first time which was a national record for the BJP, which had found it
difficult to cross the geographical barrier of Vindhyas.
Of the 403.63 lakh strong electorate
65.11% (261.66 lakh) voters had exercised the franchise, with 34.89 % (142.47
lakh) not casting their votes.
The election turned out to be a see
saw tussle for electoral supremacy between the Congress and BJP. The BJP which launched a high emotional
campaign, appealing electorate to give them a chance to govern,
pipped the Congress for the top honour,
It polled less votes (88.57
lakhs) to win 110 seats in the 224 member assembly and the Congress
which with a higher vote base ( 90.91 lakhs ) could win only 80 seats .
For a while uncertainty prevailed
over who could form the government. The BJP was the single largest party but
had missed the simple majority mark by a whisker, as it were. And the Congress
with 80 and JDs with 28 seats were singularly not in a position to stake their
claims to form government either singly or severally. That BJP clinched the
issue basically by roping in all the six independents and later firmed up its
majority by enticing the opposition legislators through Operation Kamala. But
what happened as a consequence of the artificial and unethical measures taken
to get the majority is too well known to be repeated here.
But the whole ugly aftermath of the
post election developments could have been happily avoided had there been a
slight increase in turn out (1% increase meant an additional 40,000 votes). One
could dismiss this as a hypothetical question but it cannot be avoided. For it
holds the key for avoiding the uncertainty over the formation of the new
government and the consequence decisive impact it may make on the political
scene and quality of the governanance.
It has been a mystery as to why for
such a long time, such a phenomenon has been allowed to persist without being
remedied. Fortunately, the state is free
from such vices as muscle power noticed in some of the infamous Northern states,
which prevents free exercise of voting power. Only other thing which has grown
rampant over the recent years has been the money power, unbridled distribution
of liquor and offering of blandishments of sorts. But these are done more to
get votes rather than make them stay away from the polls. Under circumstances,
factors like accessibility to booths, communication and glitches in the voters
list appear to be the main contributory causes. All these of course come within
the ambit of the administrative arrangements and why this has not been poll to
remedy them by the concerned authorities is not clear.
Till the day, there has been report
of having any study made by the official agencies or the political parties to
probe into whatever leads to the lack of lack of enthusiasm to take part in the
poll process. The voters remain as focal point of attention till the elections
by all the concerned be it the political parties or the official agencies like
the Election Commission. Once the poll is over, they are a forgotten lot, only to
be remembered at the time of next election.
The political parties, who should
have normal stake in higher turn out are hardly known to do effective ground
work before the poll in undertaking booth wise survey to know the ground
realities of the presence or absence of the voters in the area, the deletion of
names if any in the voters list for taking necessary corrective action. Even
the work of distribution of voters’ slips to the voters is done in a slipshod
manner. Their main excuse is that they have hardly any time in view of the
delay in the finalization of the candidatures by the party high command. In the
post election period, also no postmortem is done and the situation reviewed as
to the gap in the expectation and actual turn out of voters.
On the eve of election, a publicity
blitzkrieg is let lose on the people by the political parties as part of their
campaign to garner maximum support in the polls. Whether the efforts bring any
dividends in the form of newer electoral support is just forgotten once polls
are over. And no political party is known to have changed its strategy to woo
more voters and appear to be satisfied with whatever they get and election
after election. The election campaign has become more of a ritual than any
effective instrument to woo the voters. For example Congress, has not been able
to get a single additional vote in the past three elections but is hardly
bothered. It has been whiling away time on working on caste and community
equations rather than go into the causes as to what is that has made Congress unattractive.
Official agencies raise a lot of
ballyhoo on measures undertaken to make the polling, a voter friendly exercise,
in terms of accessibility of the booths, preparation of voters list and all
that. But on the polling day, the voters continue to be harried by the
difficulties, foretold or otherwise which comes in the way of the voters
exercising their franchise. The story of voters going round the polling booths
in search of names or in search of polling booths, which are arbitrarily changed,
has become quite a routine experience on the polling day. The Election Commission
is also not known to have undertaken a probe into the incidence of low polling
the high polling in the particular booths to check on the possible causes of
malpractices if any
One may not be able to ensure cent
percent polling in the booths in any election but one can certainly hope to
substantially improve the polling percentage if suitable steps are taken to remove
the stumbling blocks coming in their way. And this hardly done.
To put it in nutshell, these
substantial chunks of voters, who do not cast votes remain uncared and ignored. Not a single sole has
any drop of tear to shed on the possible causes which keep them away from
performing their sacred duty.
Karnataka
Legislative Assembly Election: Poll turn out
(all in
lakhs)
Year
|
Elec
|
Polled
|
Not
Polled
|
1983
|
201.72
|
132.46
|
69.26
|
1985
|
222.28
|
149.84
|
72.44
|
1989
|
286.24
|
193.4
|
92.84
|
1994
|
308.35
|
211.49
|
96.86
|
1999
|
342.84
|
231.94
|
110.9
|
2004
|
385.86
|
251.45
|
134.41
|
2008
|
403.63
|
261.16
|
142.47
|
Highlights:
- Every one out of three voters in Karnataka does not cast his vote in any assembly election.
- A whopping 142.47 lakh voters did not cast vote in 2008 elections.
- No effort is made by the political parties and official agencies to probe into the causes.
- Situation is allowed to continue without being remedied.
- A little improvement in turn out can bring about qualitative changes in political scenario.
Eom 07.04.13
1717 hrs,
No comments:
Post a Comment