Sudipto Mondal/The Hindu

Mangalore, Apr 22: Nearly half of India’s registered voters did not exercise their franchise in the last Parliamentary elections held in 2004. Of the 67.14 crore registered voters, a whopping 28.15 crore, or about 42 per cent, of eligible adult population chose to stay at home.

While these figures are an undeniable blemish on the largest democractic exercise in the world, the low voter turnout raises many questions. Why do such large sections of the population not vote? Is it because they are disgruntled with the system? Or, is it because they are indifferent? But what does the low turnout at polling booths say about the people, who finally form Government? Do they have the people’s permission to run the country? Take the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate L.K. Advani. In the Gandhinagar constituency of Gujarat, from where he contested last time, a meagre 39 per cent of the electorate turned out for voting. It may seem impressive that Mr. Advani garnered over 61 percent or 5.16 lakh of the 8.45 lakh votes polled in that election. But, considering that 61 percent of the eligible voters did not turn up, it also means that 16.10 lakh, or 76 per cent of the electorate, did not vote for Mr. Advani.

The Congress general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, another prospective Prime Minister according to the Congress, got elected from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh with only 44 per cent of the electorate turning out to vote there. Mr. Gandhi polled 3.9 lakh votes or 66 per cent of the 5.89 lakh votes cast. But, owing to the low voter turnout, Mr. Gandhi had not been given a mandate by over 9.34 lakh or 71 percent of the electorate.

Coastal Karnataka is often projected by the BJP as its “bastion”. Despite such projections, only 34 per cent of eligible voters in the three coastal constituencies of Mangalore (now Dakshina Kannada), Udupi, and Kanara (now Uttara Kannada), voted for the BJP. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, even as the party secured over 11 lakh votes, nearly the same number of voters did not turn up to vote. Clifton D’Rozario, a human rights advocate, said that urban voters tended to be nonchalant about elections. His opinion is evidenced by the fact that Mangalore South State Assembly constituency saw the lowest voter turnout of 64 per cent in comparison to all other constituencies in costal Karnataka.

Mr. D’Rozario said: “It is only as a cover-up that this section of voters blames corruption or criminality in politics. The reality is, they do not care,” he said.

However, he hopes that this time, youth and more urbane voters, will turn up in large numbers because of two issues: communalism and terrorism. “Until Mumbai attack, terrorism was mostly restricted to the frontiers and communal violence happened only in poor or rural neighbourhoods. The Fidayeen attack on Mumbai and the attack on women in a pub in Mangalore have changed all that,” he said.