‘Balurghat, Darj, Raiganj see a dip in voter turnout by about 4% from 2019 LS polls’

Kolkata: The voting percentage in the second phase of elections in three Parliamentary constituencies — Balurghat, Darjeeling and Raiganj held on Friday witnessed a dip of nearly 4 per cent in comparison to the last Lok Sabha polls.

As per information from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Balurghat, Darjeeling and Raiganj registered a poll percentage of 79.09, 74.76 and 76.18 per cent respectively. The overall percentage stood at 76.58 which is less than 80.9 per cent in 2019. In fact, in all three constituencies, the poll percentage was less than that of last Lok Sabha.

Darjeeling which has witnessed the lowest poll percentage among the three seats had a voting percentage of 79.33 in the 2019 Lok Sabha. Balurghat which saw the highest polling percentage among the three constituencies also had 83.13 per cent voting during 2019.

The same is true for Raiganj too, that witnessed 79.88 per cent voting during the 2019 Parliamentary elections. “We will conduct a post-poll survey to analyse the reasons behind the dip in poll percentage,“ a senior ECI official said.

However, the heat wave condition prevailing in the state can be a prime factor in less polling at least for Balurghat and Raiganj where the maximum temperature had shot up to around 39 degree Celsius. In the first four hours from 7 am to 11 am, the poll percentage was 31.25 per cent in the three constituencies and till 5 pm (in the next six hours) the overall percentage rose to 71.84 per cent, which makes it evident that the afternoon heat had its effect.

In the first phase of the polls held on April 19, when Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar went for polls, the average polling percentage was 81.9 per cent lesser than that of 2019 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls when these three constituencies recorded an average turnout of 84.7 and 83.6 per cent respectively.

Political analysts felt that the reduced voter turnout may be partly attributed to the absence of migrant workers in this election.

“The migrant workers in Bengal are in other states because of their work pressure. They have not been able to come to Bengal to vote,“ a psephologist said.