With the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections over, candidates are keeping their fingers crossed. The higher voter turnout, which touched 83.33 per cent in West Godavari district this time, has left them brooding over its impact on their prospects.
The political top brass have got back to their boardrooms and are busy reading into the mood swings of first-time voters who were responsible for the higher voter turnout.
The Eluru Lok Sabha constituency has recorded 85 per cent polling, surpassing the 82.75 per cent registered in the 2009 polls. The Narasapuram LS constituency registered 81.66 per cent.
The polling percentage this time was higher by 10 per cent compared to that of the recent local body polls. The TDP and the YSRC are interpreting the voting trends in their own favour, while the election authorities attribute it to the intensive enrolment drive for new voters. The Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), an awareness campaign, has also contributed to the higher turnout, the authorities claim.
Voter count goes up“The enrolment drive resulted in pushing up the total number of voters by 1.2 lakh in the district,” says Collector Siddharth Jain. In the Eluru LS constituency, with five Assembly segments in West Godavari district and two in Krishna district, the number of voters touched 13.75 lakh as against 12.75 lakh in the 2009 elections. Apart from first-time voters, the settler population, having their routes in the Seemandhra region, also contributed to the higher polling percentage.
However, political leaders attribute the growing dissent among people over bifurcation to the higher polling percentage. “Each election special coach of the Indian Railways meant for 75 passengers carried people up to 175 passengers from Hyderabad and Bangalore, which is a pointer to the people’s anger against bifurcation,” says Maganti Venkateswara Rao, TDP Eluru Lok Sabha candidate. “It’s a major windfall for the TDP. Students and youth are looking up to our leader Chandrababu Naidu for building the residuary A.P. into a development hub,” he adds.
However, YSRC candidate for the Eluru LS seat, Thota Chandrasekhar, has a different take. “The increase of polling percentage and huge participation of first time-voters indicates that people are craving for a change,” he said, adding that the factor would benefit the YSRC.
