As the Lok Sabha elections concluded in the State on Monday, with voting in the final eight of the 29 seats, State has witnessed two remarkable developments; dip in voting percentage and very lesser participation of women candidates. Debates over which party is going to suffer most with the drop in voting percentage are going on. Without indulging in game of certain party’s advantage or disadvantage due to dip in voter turn out, Most important factor is people’s lackadaisical response to elections. Despite the Election Commission’s several initiatives e.g. lucky draw etc., overall voting pattern and percentage presents dismal picture. For that the Election Commission can’t be held responsible since it is an instrumental to spread awareness and facilitated voters to participate in democratic exercise seamlessly. Soaring temperature can’t be prominent reason if voters’ did not turn up as per expectations. There are several instances in past when people ignored the extreme weather conditions are came out in large numbers to elect their leader.

 

It seems that nature of elections from bipolar to unipolar is the prime cause behind such a action by people. The beginning of campaigning, after the result of Assembly elections held in the month of December 2023, gave glimpse of upbeat BJP and a demoralised Congress. From mass exodus from the opposition to mass fund-raising by congress party to contest elections as its accounts were freezed, all these issues presented a picture of one-sided contest. Moreover, Indore episode has aggravated the situation that’s why Indore which is known for its civic society registered lower voter turnout in the fourth phase. Even if compare with rest of rounds of voting in the State, this commercial capital is among the constituencies with drop in percentage.

 

Political parties are working beyond the ideology and there is little difference people find between them. Influx of turncoats can be seen as a major factor. People are left with almost no option neither party nor candidate’s selection is appealing to them. Second disappointing point in this elections is very less women candidature. It can be understood with the fact that five out of eight constituencies that went for voting in last round, there were no women candidate in the election fray. Despite the eligible female voters are As per the information from the Election Commission (EC), 74 candidates were in the race in this phase among which 69 are male and remaining (only five) are female.