At 66.39 %, female voter turnout in Ludhiana lower than males
Against 68.79% male voter turnout, only 66.39 % women came out to exercise their franchise for the 14 assembly seats in the district on Sunday. In 2017, the male voter turnout stood at 75.24% while the female voter turnout was 74.3%.
While there was an 8% dip in the voter turnout of both males and females this time, compared to the 2017 assembly elections, men fared better than women again.
Against 68.79% male voter turnout, only 66.39 % women came out to exercise their franchise for the 14 assembly seats in the district on Sunday. In 2017, the male voter turnout stood at 75.24% while the female voter turnout was 74.3%.
There are around 12.5 lakh registered women voters and 14.3 lakh male voters here. While the overall voting percentage of Ludhiana after the final round was 67.67 %, the Payal segment recorded the highest overall turnout at 76.12% followed by Dakha at 75.63% and Samrala at 75.49%.
Rural segments of Payal, Dakha, Samrala and Khanna recorded a high turnout of male voters recording a polling percentage of 77.3 %, 76.5 %, 75.6 and 75.2 % respectively.
On the other hand, the highest percentage of female voters was recorded in Samrala where 62,818 of the total 83,358 registered women voters turned up to exercise their franchise, recording a female polling percentage of 75.36 %. This was followed by women of Dakha who recorded a poll percentage of 74.66. Urban constituencies were in complete contrast where very few women ventured out on a Sunday to cast their vote.
Atam Nagar assembly segment, known for violent clashes between rival groups, recorded the lowest turnout of women voters as just 58.58 % of the total 81,028 registered women voters here came out to vote.
All other urban constituencies of Ludhiana North, East, Central, West and South also recorded a low voter turnout not exceeding 65% in any of these constituencies. The low turnout of female voters was despite the fact that the election commission had made special arrangements, including pink booths managed by an all-women teams, to encourage them to exercise their franchise.
According to officials, Covid scare was one of the reasons for the low turnout in both men and women. A number of weddings were also scheduled on February 20 due to which a lot many voters could not cast their vote as they were travelling or not present in their constituency.
“Life has changed since the pandemic outbreak and everyone wants to go out and enjoy weddings. A number of weddings were scheduled yesterday with the marriage season at its peak. Time for rallies and electioneering was also less due to the 16 day push back this time which can also be one of the reasons for the low turnout,” said one of the officials on election duty, requesting anonymity.
