In the 2018 Assembly polls, Bengaluru saw a voter turnout of 51%. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, this was 54.13%. This means half of the city does not vote. As elections are around the corner, the Election Commission has been conducting various awareness campaigns to address voter apathy.
So, how real is voter apathy? “It is very real,” says Anand Thirtha, a member of the Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC) who has worked on the issue. “It includes the reluctance to include names in the voter list, updating the change of residence and changing constituencies. People who changed houses years ago do not update their voter IDs.”
He feels that respect for the community and a sense of belonging to the ward and assembly are lacking due to the floating nature of the population.
“The city has a 1.5-million-strong tech community. They hardly know their corporator, ward, or ground issues. They are very disconnected,” he says.
T V Mohandas Pai, chairperson of Manipal Global Education, says that corporates should send out mailers asking their employees to go out and vote. Corporate leaders should stand up for the community, he adds.
Raghavendra, programme lead, BPAC, says that most people in urban Bengaluru do not depend on or feel connected to political leaders.
In rural areas, “people have a sense of caste, community and belonging, and are better connected to local leaders,” he adds.
Lack of awareness
“While working on voter ID drives in colleges, we figured out that 90% of students did not know anything about constituencies, budgets and other issues,” says Ananda Thirtha.
He adds that the government should make voter registration compulsory after 18 years of age. The electoral to population ratio in Bengaluru is lower than the state average as many are not registered, he points out.
Technological challenges add to the problem. “There are technical issues with the voter helpline app which the EC should fix quickly to help people who search for their names,” he adds.
Prepping the voters
The Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF) has been running a campaign called ‘Every Vote Matters’ for some time now. Vikram Rai, general secretary of BAF says that, at present, they are focusing on three aspects.
The first is voter preparedness. The federation conducted five-six voter registration camps in the last few weeks and got about 900 people registered. Now, they are focusing on enrolling more people through the voter helpline app and offline registration camps.
The second part is voter awareness. “We want to bring more information out in order for apartment residents to know about the candidates and their understanding of our problems,” he says. The BAF conducted an all-party town hall event with senior representatives from all parties. “Issues of residents, as well as issues of Bengaluru, were discussed,” he adds.
While this event touched upon high-level issues, BAF is also planning localised assembly-level debates.
“Political parties are recognising us and inviting us for their town halls and manifesto meetings,” he says.
Voter participation is the final part. “We are thinking of recognising apartments with the highest percentage of voter turnout. The aim is to make the experience of voting celebratory and participatory.”
Voting is every citizen’s duty, Pai emphasises. “We should make sure a coalition of good leaders comes to power, only then the society will progress. All of us have a commitment to society, the state and the city.”
‘Disillusionment’
Major M G Devasahayam, an ex-IAS officer who is the coordinator of the Citizens’ Commission on Elections, a body set up to critically analyse India’s electoral processes, points
at an important issue: Disillusionment among voters.
“The democratic process is fast-diminishing, with bribery and corrupt practices. Faith in democracy erodes when elections are not held with integrity. When people lose hope, they do not want to vote,” he adds.
“Months before elections, parties are giving away money, sarees and gifts to voters. This trend cannot create a genuine interest among voters to vote,” he says, explaining how voters lose faith in the election process.
The trend of low voting percentage exists not only in Bengaluru but in all metropolitan cities across the country. “Chennai’s percentage is lower than Bengaluru, at 40-45%.”
People cannot be compelled to vote, he adds. “You have to make the democratic process vibrant.”