For whom is the voters' apathy a threat?

The elections for the 18th Lok Sabha have completed more than half of their journey. In the third phase, with the completion of voting on 94 seats in 12 states on Tuesday, voting for 283 seats of 543 members of Lok Sabha was completed. 272 members are required for majority in the Lok Sabha and voting has taken place on 283 seats. Now voting is to be done on 260 seats in the remaining four phases. In such a situation, the question arises that after the three phases of voting, which alliance has the upper hand and what is the meaning of the continuously decreasing voting percentage?

This time in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections, the voting percentage fell by more than 5 percent. While in 2019, 67 percent voting took place on these seats, this time only about 62 percent people used their franchise. The highest turnout was in Assam at 75% and the lowest turnout was in Maharashtra at 53.7%.

If we talk about other states, the voting percentage has decreased there also. Compared to 2019, this time it was 10.2% in Assam, 4.9% in Bihar, 4.0% in Chhattisgarh, 11.9% in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 2.2% in Goa, 8.7% in Gujarat, 2.5% in Karnataka, 10.2% in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh It has decreased by 4.2% in Uttar Pradesh, 3.9% in Uttar Pradesh and 7.8% in West Bengal.

In the third phase, the highest voting took place in Dhubri Lok Sabha seat of Assam. Here 79.7% people exercised their franchise. Whereas in Gujarat's Amreli seat, only 46.1% people came out of their homes to vote.

According to the data so far, the biggest thing seen in these three phases is that the voting percentage in all these three phases has been less as compared to 2019. In 2019, the voting percentage had been falling with increasing phase and this time too it is less. The difference between 2019 and 2024 is that in 2019, voting was held on 302 seats in three phases, whereas this time voting was held on only 282 seats in three phases.

Election analyst Sandeep Shastri said that there are many reasons for the low vote percentage. On the one hand, people are citing the scorching heat as the reason, on the other hand it is being said that the political heat is also not that hot this time. There could be many reasons for the trust that people have in leaders and parties.

Whereas election analyst Prof. Sanjay Kumar said that elections should be important for everyone, but the falling vote percentage shows that people's interest in elections is also decreasing. Apart from heat or indifference, there can be many reasons for this. Meanwhile, while very few people have voted in Maharashtra, a large number of voters in Assam and West Bengal still exercised their franchise. But overall apathy is clearly visible among the voters.