To increase the poll percentage in the May 16 Assembly polls, the Voter Awareness Observer for the district, Sidharth Babanrao Bodke, visited some of the areas in the district on Monday, which recorded low voter turnout during the previous Lok Sabha polls and the 2011 Assembly polls.
As the Election Commission of India is keen on ensuring phenomenal increase in poll percentage in the ensuing Assembly polls, a range of awareness programmes such as human chain, rallies, marathon, cycle rally, sand art, rangoli, ‘mehandi’ etc. are being organised through various government departments.
Moreover, pamphlets stressing the need for actively taking part in the poll process are also being circulated among the voters.
After participating in the voter awareness human chain programme, organised at Kaavalkinaru Junction along with around 300 students of a private college at Vadakkankulam on Monday, Mr. Bodke, accompanied by a team of officials, visited Uvari in Radhapuram Assembly constituency as this coastal hamlet recorded only 54.50 per cent voter turnout during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He also interacted with the fishermen in an attempt to know the reasons behind low voter turnout in the previous election and appealed to them to cast their votes without fail on May 16.
“Since most of the fishermen were not prepared to suspend fishing operations for a day on the day of polling, the voter turnout had plummeted to serious level. This time, we’ve spoken to the villagers, parish priest and others directly and appealed to them to cast their votes on May 16 without fail,” said Radhapuram Tahsildar Justin Jayapaul.
Later, Mr. Bodke also visited the Electronic Voting Machine demo point at Valliyoor bus-stand.
Returning Officer of Radhapuram Assembly segment Muruganandam, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Valliyoor, Balaji, and Liaison Officer Venkatraman accompanied the Observer.
Mr. Bodke also held discussion with Collector and District Election Officer M. Karunakaran on the voter awareness programmes organised in the district so far and participated in a voter awareness human chain along with Sub-Collector, Cheranmahadevi V. Vishnu, Assistant Collector (Training) K.P. Karthikeyan and Tirunelveli Corporation Commissioner and Returning Officer of Palayamkottai segment S. Sivasubramanian.
