'Urban apathy' a major challenge in tech-hub Bengaluru

Observing that urban voters' "apathy" continues across the country, the Election Commission of India has highlighted the need to encourage professionals working in the information technology (IT) sector to participate in the electoral process.

Sharing the status of urban apathy in Karnataka, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said four districts in Bengaluru, India's IT hub, saw the lowest voter turnouts in the State in 2013 and 2018.

In the 2013 Assembly election, the average voter turnout for the State was 71.83 percent. Whereas among the four Assembly segments that come under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), only Bengaluru Urban recorded 62.03 percent voter turnout while three others - BBMP (South), BBMP (North) & BBMP (Central) - recorded less than 60 percent each.

The situation deteriorated further in 2018. Out of the average voter turnout of 72.44 per cent for the State, the three BBMP constituencies reported less than 55 percent voting while for Bengaluru Urban, it was 57 percent.

"Urban apathy is a cause for concern. These four districts in India's IT hub have recorded lower than the State average voter turnout in the 2013 and 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, much less than the State average. 88 percent of the polling stations in these four districts are in urban areas," he added.

The Election Commission also shared a chart showing the low voter turnout trend in urban areas in the 2019 general elections. Nine of the top 20 low voter turnout constituencies were urban. This trend was also noticed in the recently held Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections held in 2022.

Voter apathy is a term now used by the poll panel to describe the tendency among the electorate to stay indoors on the voting day than going to the polling station to exercise their franchise.

In a bid to check apathy among urban voters, the commission has come up with an out-of-the-box idea by holding the polls this time in the middle of the week so as to prevent people plan an outing by clubbing the poll-day holiday with the weekend break.

"Date of the poll has been kept on a Wednesday. Had it been on a Monday, it would have come with a holiday of Saturday and Sunday. And had it been on a Tuesday, take a day's off and we can go out... Wednesday is a little difficult," CEC Kumar told reporters while announcing the poll date.

"I am sure, people will not sleep for that long. They can't go out now... they'll come (to polling stations)," he said, adding that the move is part of the EC's effort to ensure greater participation and curb voters' apathy in going to the polling stations.

Karnataka will vote on May 10 while counting of votes will take place on May 13.