Maharashtra Polls: EC Calls Out Urban Apathy, Cites ‘Below Average’ Voting In Mumbai, Pune, Thane

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday finally announced the much-awaited dates for assembly elections in Maharashtra. As per the official schedule, Maharashtra is slated to go to polls in a single phase on November 20 while the vote counting and results announcement will take place on November 23.

However, while announcing the official schedule, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday expressed serious concern over the impact of urban apathy in voting.

Urban apathy: A matter of concern

The Election Commission (EC) has been flagging the issue of low voter turnout urban centres including Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra. On Tuesday, expressing concern over the impact of urban apathy on voter turnout, Kumar said that polling days in Maharashtra and Jharkhand have been kept mid-week so that more people vote.

Urging people to come out and vote in greater numbers in the urban areas, Kumar said, "We are really really concerned about urban apathy. We want to appeal to all voters in urban areas to come and vote. It is not a healthy trend which is reflected."

"Look at Gurgaon, look at Faridabad, recently, last election Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Bengaluru South, Gandhinagar, Colaba, Pune, Thane... all are much below state averages of each state," he said.

"We will be conducting a special meeting of the municipal commissioners in a week's time to appeal again," he said.

In Maharashtra, turnouts in 62 of 64 urban assembly constituencies were less than the state average in 2019, as was the case in Lok Sabha elections, he said, adding "We will have a special drive for urban areas".

“Our effort will be to ensure that there is maximum enrolment and voting in Maharashtra assembly elections,” he said.

“We have asked the Maharashtra Government to shift officials who have served in their home district or current posting for over three years,” Kumar said.

What happened in 2019 elections?

In 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged 105 seats out of total 288 Assembly seats and emerged as the single largest party while its alliance partner Shiv Sena managed to win 56 seats. Together with 161 seats the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had a comfortable majority to form the government.

However, the victory was soon overshadowed by the rift over the Chief Minister’s post leading to a split between the two parties. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena formed a government with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance. Uddhav Thackeray from Shiv Sena became the Chief Minister.

The MVA government failed to complete its full term and collapsed in June 2022 owing to an internal rebellion within the Shiv Sena led by senior leader Eknath Shinde who, along with several Shiv Sena MLAs, opposed the party's alliance with the Congress and NCP.

This internal conflict divided the party into two factions and Shinde managed to form the government with the help of the BJP and became the Chief Minister.