When voting for the nine local bodies in Ghaziabad district ended on Thursday evening, the district recorded a dismal turnout of about 45.52%, which was the second lowest among the 38 districts which went to polls in the second phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the provisional figures released by the Uttar Pradesh election commission at 8pm on Thursday, the lowest turnout was recorded in Kanpur City at 42.64%. The Ghaziabad district went to polls with a total of 2,583,546 voters spread across nine local bodies and only 1,175,989 of them exercised their franchise on Thursday.
Among the nine local bodies, Ghaziabad municipal corporation recorded the lowest voter turnout of 41.43% with only 638,903 voters of a registered base of 1,542,126 turning up to vote on Thursday.
The turnout in Khoda was 44%, Muradnagar 66.35%, Modinagar 55%, Loni 47.16%, Dasna 66.80%, Niwari 72.34%, Patla 73.10%, and Faridnagar 72.19%.
District officials said it was a slow start to voting day. The district till 9am reported a turnout of 7.87% and it touched 19.67% by 11am. The voting picked up pace after that and the turnout touched 27.23% by 1pm, 34.69% by 3pm and 41.92% by 5pm.
The state election commission reported the overall provisional figure of 45.52% at the end of polling on Thursday at 8pm.
In the last local body elections in 2017, the corporation registered a lowest turnout of 41.74 per cent while four Nagar Palikas of Khoda, Muradnagar, Modinagar and Loni recorded turnout of 50.68 per cent, 65.19 per cent, 59.39 per cent and 49.22 per cent, respectively.
The fate of 1,837 contesting candidates is now sealed in the electronic voting machines and ballot boxes.
The contesting candidates expressed satisfaction with the voting and each of them said they would emerge victories on counting day on May 13.
“We got overwhelming support from all sections of society and also in areas dominated by minority communities such as Kaila Bhatta, Shaheed Nagar and Sahibabad, among others. The voters cast their ballots beyond the party lines and we expect a huge win. Our agenda for city development and connect with locals also helped a lot. The low voter turnout in the urban segment has remained a cause of concern since the past few election but it will not impact our position,” said Poonam Yadav, Samajwadi Party’s mayoral candidate.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates have held the post of mayor, Ghaziabad municipal corporation, ever since the municipal board was upgraded to a corporation in 1994.
“We expect that this time the victory margin will be huge and more than what we saw in 2017. Our agenda for city development and the work done by our party workers will help us emerge successful. The voting percentage remained low and this is also a cause of concern. It was expected that people who raise questions would also come out and vote for the city’s development,” said Sunita Dayal, BJP’s mayoral candidate.
This election, there was an increase of 306,656 voters from the previous polls in 2017, district officials said.
“The turnout has been on the lower side in the district but we had made all arrangements from our side. The voters in urban segments did not come out as expected but the voters in rural segments turned out in large numbers and this increased the overall turnout,” said Vipin Kumar, additional district magistrate and nodal officer for local bodies.
