“The low turnout in Srinagar in the second phase of polling is obviously the result of a comparatively low key campaigning by political parties and a reduced voter engagement in majority of the assembly constituencies in Srinagar district.”
The interest of voters to vote matters more than the result of the elections anywhere in the country and same holds good for the political parties contesting the onging assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir. While the duty of the Election Commission is to give level playing field to all candidates, it is the responsibility of the poll contestants to raise the level of voter participation through intense campaigning during the campaigning periods. Though most of the political observers in Kashmir believe that the reduced powers of a UT Government and the confusion over the restoration of statehood to Jammu & Kashmir in the post-poll scenario could be one big reason for the low turnout in Srinagar but fact remains that voter participation depends mostly on the intensity of the poll campaigning by political parties. Unfortunately the low turnout in Srinagar in the second phase of polling is obviously the result of a comparatively low key campaigning by political parties and a reduced voter engagement in majority of the assembly constituencies in Srinagar district. Knowing that the interest of the people to vote is very low in Srinagar as compared to people in majority of the towns and rural parts of Kashmir Valley the campaigning by political parties should have been more intense in Srinagar than other parts of Kashmir Valley. High turnout recorded in the recently held Lok Sabha elections had obviously different reasons. Low key campaigning in Srinagar which did not see intense booth level voter engagement in most of the assembly constituencies could be a major cause of low turn in Srinagar.
“A low turnout means that the winning candidates don’t command the support of the majority and it also indicates that had the loosers worked hard to increase the voter participation the results could have been quite different for them. Though for all practical purposes the results of low and high turnouts are not always same but what matters the most is fact that high turnout gives winning candidates much greater political legitimacy than the low turnout.”
With uptown areas showing a slightly higher turnout than the downtown areas it is quite clear that low key campaigning in downtown areas resulting in the low key booth level engagement with the voters by candidates of major political parties is the major cause of low turnout in Srinagar. Political parties and independent candidates despite getting the level playing field they deserved have obviously failed to bring the voters to the polling booths on polling day and as such they owe explanations for their failures in maintaining the surge in turnout that was witnessed during the Lok Sabha elections held just two months back. After all turnout gives political legitimacy to the winning candidates and the political parties to which they belong. A low turnout means that the winning candidates don’t command the support of the majority and it also indicates that had the loosers worked hard to increase the voter participation the results could have been quite different for them. Though for all practical purposes the results of low and high turnouts are not always same but what matters the most is fact that high turnout gives winning candidates much greater political legitimacy than the low turnout.
