Contrary to the belief that a bypoll would record more voter turnout than during general elections, less voters have cast their votes in the Nanguneri by-election.
While 71.90% voters exercised their franchise in the Assembly polls held in 2016, only 66.35% voters participated in the democratic exercise on Monday despite several awareness programmes conducted in sustained fashion across the constituency.
The main reason behind the drop in voter turnout is attributed to poll boycott by a section of voters of a particular community, according to political observers.
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Demanding the reclassification of seven sub-sects as ‘Devendrakula Vellalar’ through a gazette notification, voters of these sub-sects living in the Nanguneri constituency announced that they would boycott the election unless the State government accepts the demand. To pacify them, Ministers met the leaders of the community voters but talks failed to placate them.
The voters stayed away from the polling stations.
Though 52 booths had been set up in the villages where protesters are living in large number, only voters from other communities cast their votes in these booths even as additional police forces were in place. In the booth at Ariyakulam, only 77 of 682 voters exercised their franchise and one of the booths at Parappaadi near Nanguneri registered voter turnout of only 138 of 793 voters.
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At Savalaikaarankulam, 188 voters fulfilled their democratic right though the number of voters assigned for this booth is 1,049. Booths at Munneerpallam, Marudham Nagar, Singikulam, Poolam, Keezhanaththam, KTC Nagar North, Puthukkulam, Sivanthipatti, Marudhakulam, Eduppal and Paappaankulam, all housing voters from the community, registered the voter turnout of 20% to 49%. All these booths had voter turnout of over 65% in the last Assembly poll held in 2016.
To make things worse, voters living in various colonies at KTC Nagar too stayed away from the polling stations for reasons best known to them.