Uncared and Ignored

April 8, 2013:

It may look strange but true. The number of people staying away from participating in the parliamentary system of governance in the state is on the increase.

On an average one out of every three voters in the state prefers   not to cast is vote in the election, allowing the system to function on the basis of participation of 2/3rd of the electorate.

In a way, this is nothing new. The apathetic attitude for a whole hearted participation in the democratic process has been a fact of life of the Karnataka electoral process since the beginning. And the situation did not improve with the rise in the electorate and poll turn out. Along with the increase in electorate and poll turn out the number of people not participating in the poll has also been going up in disconcerted manner.

The impact of the absence of large number of voters was not felt for the first five elections in Karnataka since the formation of the state, since the Congress had unquestioned sway, with no opposition combination anywhere near the ruling party to pose any challenge.

But the things have begun looking different since 1983, which should go as a watershed in the political history of Karnataka, when Karnataka voters opted for a bipolar political system to end the political hegemony of the Congress and voted for the first Non Congress government to assume office in the state. Since then power has been changing between Congress and Non Congress combinations at regular intervals, thanks mainly to the consolidation of the anti Congress votes.

The scenario over the past three decades spanning over seven elections gives a clear indication of the developing dangerous trend. Going by the percentages alone, it looks as if the uniform trend has continued with a minor variation here and there. But the real numbers gives the story a different dimension.

Between 1963 and 2008, as the table given along with this, the electorate has gone up from 201.73 lakhs to 403.63 lakhs, the poll turn up increased from 132.46 lakhs to 261.16 lakhs. The number of absentee voters has almost touched 150 lakh marks.

The 2008 elections was the second water shed in the political history of Karnataka, with BJP being voted to power for the first time which was a national record for the BJP, which had found it difficult to cross the geographical barrier of Vindhyas.

Of the 403.63 lakh strong electorate 65.11% (261.66 lakh) voters had exercised the franchise, with 34.89 % (142.47 lakh) not casting their votes.

The election turned out to be a see saw tussle for electoral supremacy between the Congress and BJP. The BJP which launched a high emotional campaign,  appealing  electorate to give them a chance to govern, pipped the Congress for the top honour,  It polled less votes (88.57 lakhs) to win 110 seats in the 224 member assembly and the Congress which with a higher vote base ( 90.91 lakhs ) could win only  80 seats .

For a while uncertainty prevailed over who could form the government. The BJP was the single largest party but had missed the simple majority mark by a whisker, as it were. And the Congress with 80 and JDs with 28 seats were singularly not in a position to stake their claims to form government either singly or severally. That BJP clinched the issue basically by roping in all the six independents and later firmed up its majority by enticing the opposition legislators through Operation Kamala. But what happened as a consequence of the artificial and unethical measures taken to get the majority is too well known to be repeated here.

But the whole ugly aftermath of the post election developments could have been happily avoided had there been a slight increase in turn out (1% increase meant an additional 40,000 votes). One could dismiss this as a hypothetical question but it cannot be avoided. For it holds the key for avoiding the uncertainty over the formation of the new government and the consequence decisive impact it may make on the political scene and quality of the governanance.

It has been a mystery as to why for such a long time, such a phenomenon has been allowed to persist without being remedied. Fortunately, the state is free from such vices as muscle power noticed in some of the infamous Northern states, which prevents free exercise of voting power. Only other thing which has grown rampant over the recent years has been the money power, unbridled distribution of liquor and
offering of blandishments of sorts. But these are done more to get votes rather than make them stay away from the polls. Under circumstances, factors like accessibility to booths, communication and glitches in the voters list appear to be the main contributory causes. All these of course come within the ambit of the administrative arrangements and why this has not been poll to remedy them by the concerned  authorities is not clear.

Till the day, there has been report of having any study made by the official agencies or the political parties to probe into whatever leads to the lack of lack of enthusiasm to take part in the poll process. The voters remain as focal point of attention till the elections by all the concerned be it the political parties or the official agencies like the Election Commission. Once the poll is over, they are a forgotten lot, only to be remembered at the time of next election.

The political parties, who should have normal stake in higher turn out are hardly known to do effective ground work before the poll in undertaking booth wise survey to know the ground realities of the presence or absence of the voters in the area, the deletion of names if any in the voters list for taking necessary corrective action. Even the work of distribution of voters’ slips to the voters is done in a slipshod manner.
Their main excuse is that they have hardly any time in view of the delay in the finalization of the candidatures by the party high command. In the post election period, also no postmortem is done and the situation reviewed as to the gap in the expectation and actual turn out of voters.

On the eve of election, a publicity blitzkrieg is let lose on the people by the political parties as part of their campaign to garner maximum support in the polls. Whether the efforts bring any dividends in the form of newer electoral support is just forgotten once polls are over. And no political party is known to have changed its strategy to woo more voters and appear to be satisfied with whatever they get and election after election. The election campaign has become more of a ritual than any effective instrument to woo the voters. For example Congress, has not been able to get a single additional vote in the past three elections but is hardly bothered. It has been whiling away time on working on caste and community equations rather than go into the causes as to what is that has made  Congress unattractive.

Official agencies raise a lot of ballyhoo on measures undertaken to make the polling, a voter friendly exercise, in terms of accessibility of the booths, preparation of voters list and all that. But on the polling day, the voters continue to be harried by the difficulties, foretold or otherwise which comes in the way of the voters exercising their franchise. The story of voters going round the polling booths in search of names or in search of polling booths, which are arbitrarily changed, has become quite a routine experience on the polling day. The Election Commission is also not known to have undertaken a probe into the incidence of low polling the high polling in the particular booths to check on the possible causes of malpractices if any

One may not be able to ensure cent percent polling in the booths in any election but one can certainly hope to substantially improve the polling percentage if suitable steps are taken to remove the stumbling blocks coming in their way. And this hardly done.

To put it in nutshell, these substantial chunks of voters, who do not cast votes remain uncared and ignored. Not a single sole has any drop of tear to shed on the possible causes which keep them away from performing their sacred duty.

(Author is a Senior Journalist and Columnist.  Mobile: +91 94480 74872     Email :madan.mm@gmail.com)