Urban voters disappoint once again

Hyderabad: Even the high-decibel campaign by the political parties could not convince the urban voters as Hyderabadis showed least interest in utilising their franchise.

The city constituencies (Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Malkajgiri) registered the lowest turnout in the state reflecting the denizen's apathy in exercising their franchise.

The election process started at 7 am in all the polling stations sans voters for too long during the morning hours. There were one or two persons in the polling booths during the early hours and not more than 7 per cent voters turned out till 9 am.

The voting percentage was about 11 per cent to 12 per cent in the three Lok Sabha constituencies (Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Malkajgiri) till 11 am. Polling picked up in the three constituencies after lunch as people started coming and there were queues with seven to ten members waiting for their turn.

By 3 pm, the voter turnout was 27 per cent to 36 per cent in these three constituencies. By the end of the day, the voter turnout in the three constituencies was 39 per cent to 42 per cent.

While Hyderabad Lok Sabha was the lowest with 39.49 per cent, the Secunderabad was 39.2 and Malkajgiri was 42.75 per cent. Incidentally, in the Old City areas where the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has strong presence registered low voter turnout.

Though youth and first-time voters came to use their franchise, their number was not big. Senior citizens were seen during the early hours and they utilised the wheelchair facility provided by the Election Commission authorities.

A polling booth (PS no 34) in Nampally registered just 68 votes out of the 1,207 total votes by 9 am. Similarly, a polling booth in Padmaraonagar, which had 1,254 votes could register only 214 votes till noon.

This is not the first time the Hyderabadis disappointed the election authorities as the voter turnout has always been on the lower side over the years.

During the Assembly elections in December, the voter turnout in Hyderabad was 50 per cent.

During the 2014 elections, the voter turnout was 53 per cent and 46 per cent in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.

However, the political analysts said that the low voter turnout in the city was because of people preferring to use their franchise in their native places. Many voters were seen travelling to their native places a day before the election in state.

Another reason for the low turnout was several IT companies not declaring holiday for the election apart from the hot weather. Some of the citizens said that their vote will not make any difference as nothing was going to change. A Facebook user Syed Murtuza said that nothing was going to change.

"These political parties give hand to Muslims. Hence people thought it is better not to go for voting," wrote Murtuza on his wall.

Another user Maneesh Raj criticised the citizens stating, "First these people will not vote and now for the next five years they will say government is not doing anything." Hyderabadis enjoyed the holiday in their homes instead of voting, said K Vinod Kumar.