Awareness drives come to nought

Despite being given a paid holiday, IT employees stay away from voting. It is now apparent that the professionals merely enjoyed the holiday and stayed home, instead of taking the pains to go to the polling station.

Despite the hype around spreading awareness among IT professionals, youth and urban middle-class about exercising their franchise, the effect on the ground in Ranga Reddy district leaves a lot to be desired.

The district administration and the Labour Department had worked overtime trying to build awareness among the public, especially IT professionals, by organising meetings with IT companies and industry bodies through whom they hoped to reach their target audience.

They also convinced the companies to declare April 30 as a paid holiday, with many of them actually acquiescing to it.

However, it is now apparent that the professionals merely enjoyed the holiday and stayed home, instead of taking the pains to go to the polling station.

Below expectations

While it was expected that the district would clock a polling percentage of 70 per cent, as against the 54 per cent recorded in the 2009 elections, actual polling remained only at around 60 per cent. Even this rise owes itself to the considerable increase of polling in Uppal constituency.

As per information provided by the district administration, the constituencies of Serilingampally, Kukatpally and Quthbullapur, the hubs of IT professionals, hardly registered growth in voting percentage.

On the contrary, the numbers fell in comparison with the previous elections.

In Serilingampally, polling plummeted to 48 per cent from 53.3 per cent in 2009, while Kukatpally, at 50.36, clocked a negative growth of over three per cent. Quthbullapur recorded a drop of nearly two per cent.

L.B. Nagar, another urban constituency housing mostly government and public sector employees, registered a slight drop too.

Uppal against the grain

Uppal, however grew respectably from 42.38 per cent to almost 50 per cent, while Malkajgiri, the most sought-after constituency by VIPs, registered nearly three percent decline in polling percentage. Against the 54.61 per cent in the last elections, this year registered a mere 51.74 per cent.

Voting in Medchal more or less remained the same.

Surprisingly, polling percentage dropped in semi-urban constituencies such as Maheshwaram, and Rajendranagar too, even while increasing in their rural counterparts.

Chevella witnessed the highest polling in the district at 78.72 per cent, followed by Ibrahimpatnam at 78.14 per cent.