After months of intense campaigning and muckraking it is now time for the political leaders in Meghalaya and Nagaland to wait anxiously as the citizens of the states exercise their voting rights tomorrow, February 27.
Meghalaya and Nagaland have had a history of being states with one of the highest voter turnout across India making the upcoming polling an exciting affair to follow.
While it is too early to predict which way the votes will sway, a look at the past voter turnout pattern in the hill states will give us a fair idea how the citizens vote as the states usually have a preuttaion of turning out in large numbers.
Meghalaya
The voter turnout in Meghalaya in the last two Assembly elections has been consistent at 87.70 per cent whereas the turnout in 2008 was 89.4, the highest in the last five elections.
In 1998, 74.5 per cent of the voters cast their votes while 2003 witnessed the least turnout—70.4 per cent.
Nagaland
Despite an overall reputation of having a high voter turnout, Nagaland has also had as low as 22.20 per cent voters exercising their franchise in the year 1998. The lowest after that was in the last Assembly elections in 2018 with 84.00 per cent.
2013 saw a whopping 91.30 turnout while 2003 and 2008 had 87.80 per cent and 86.80 per cent respectively.
As the two states go for voting tomorrow morning, it is for us to see if they can keep up with their streak of high turnout percentage or will they fall short this time round. Most importantly, we await the battle for the two hill states.