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Many factors push voter turnout to top

Sarabjit Pandher

Patiala town, where Amarinder Singh is seeking re-election, records 43 per cent increase

CHANDIGARH: The record turnout of 76 per cent voters in the Punjab Assembly elections this week has left many here baffled. While counting of votes is scheduled for February 27, attempts are being made to answer the question: "What do numbers mean for democracy?"

An analysis of the voting pattern points towards more electors in all the urban constituencies, where an average increase of 33 per cent was recorded compared to the polls five years ago.

This is contrary to the traditional view that fewer people in the cities turn up to vote. Simultaneously, the average increase in the semi-urban and rural areas was 16.19 and 14.25 per cent respectively.

Another interesting aspect is that the constituencies which have shown a major increase in the turnout of voters this time had actually recorded a reduction in 2002, when the Congress upstaged the Akali-BJP combine to assume power.

Patiala town, where Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is seeking re-election, recorded a 43 per cent increase as compared to 14.02 per cent reduction during the 1997 polls. On the other hand, a completely rural constituency, Lambi, where the Akali leader Parkash Singh Badal is in the fray for the third consecutive time, has shown a 21 per cent increase compared to a decrease of 5.5 per cent last time.

Meanwhile, a number of factors have emerged that explain the exceptionally high voter turnout. First, it appears that faced with a crumbling grievance redress mechanism, people preferred to use the democratic rights rather than resort to any other means to articulate their dissatisfaction. The lack of public response to election rallies addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the urban areas, provides credence to such arguments, which also include the element of resentment caused by the all-round increase in the prices of essential commodities.

Secondly, for the first time in the history of the State, personality-driven contests replaced the traditional play of competing ideologies. While at the State level it was a no-holds-barred war between Capt. Singh and Mr. Badal, similar electoral struggles were replicated in most constituencies as well. While the Congress and the Akali Dal did not push their secular and Panthic credentials, respectively, during electioneering, publicity material sought attention to the two top leaders only.

Further, driven by stiff competition, the main political parties resorted to "cross support base mobilisation". It was quite evident that the Akali Dal, traditionally based among the rural peasantry, made sustained efforts to garner more votes from the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. Aided by its alliance partner BJP, it attempted to make inroads into urban votes, especially the Hindus.

The Congress, which has relied upon the SC and BC vote banks augmented by a sizeable number of urban Hindu voters, turned towards wooing the farmers, especially the Jat Sikhs in the Malwa region, considered to be an Akali bastion.

Another important aspect that came under the spotlight was the role of the "deras" (religious seminaries), especially after the Sacha Sauda sect, based in Sirsa district of Haryana, openly declared its support for the Congress. The dera has a major influence among the socially and economically weaker sections in the adjoining constituencies.

The Akali-BJP alliance and other parties, including the Bahujan Samaj Party and the third front, which includes the Left parties, resorted to a counter consolidation of the respective support bases.

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Many factors push voter turnout to top

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