ID cards enthused rural voters

By V. Ganapathy

TIRUCHI, MAY 11. The overall polling percentage in yesterday's Assembly elections Tiruchi, Karur, Perambalur, Pudukottai and Ariyalur districts was moderate, with Ariyalur, most backward and new district, topping with 70 per cent, and Tiruchi recording the lowest 60 per cent. But issue of voter identity cards was the maximum in Ariyalur district and the lowest in Tiruchi district.

According to the Ariyalur Collector, Mr. Rakesh Kumar Yadav, the propaganda by authorities during the past six months that people would not be allowed to vote without the cards created tremendous enthusiasm among the people to obtain the same. As many as 79 per cent of the voters were given cards, and a very large number of the electorate turned up for exercising their franchise.

Special interest was noticed among the Dalits to exercise their franchise. The Collector said, thanks to the tight security, though two of the three constituencies in the district were considered super-sensitive, the voting went off peacefully.

And the link between the issue of ID cards and the voting percentage is evident from the voting pattern in Tiruchi district, especially in Tiruverumbur, constituency with the maximum number of voters. In Tiruchi district, out of 17.78 lakh voters, only 10.64 lakhs cast their votes. Interestingly the total number of voters who had been given cards was only 12.36 lakhs.

In Tiruverumbur, out of 2.62 lakh voters, only 1.4 lakhs were issued cards. The constituency where the elite of the city live, and where the colonies of the staff of the BHEL, HAPP and OFT - all Central Government organisations - and the Regional Engineering College, are residing, the polling percentage was just 49. Out of 2.6 lakh voters, only 1.2 lakhs exercised their franchise, which was less than the number of electorate to whom the ID cards were issued.

The citizens of Tiruverumbur, who were critical of the officials for deleting the names of over 35,000 voters from the list, though they had included about 30,000 voters, said most of the people with ID cards exercised their franchise. Only a small percentage of people without the cards cast their votes by establishing their identity through ration cards, etc.

Mr. V. Murthy, Tiruchi Collector, Mr. K. Muruganandam, Karur Collector, Mr. K. Phaneendra Reddy, Perambalur Collector, Mr. Shambu K. Kallolikar, Pudukottai Collector, and Mr. Rakesh Kumar Yadav confirmed that as much as 90 per cent of voters who exercised their franchise were having ID cards. Only about 10 per cent of the voters used other forms of identity such as ration cards. They said the cards lent the rural voters, a sense of pride since they had been recognised with their photographs by the Election Commission. Hundreds of rural men and women said though only the traditionally rich could boast of patta and bank passbooks, everyone was proud of having the ``photo card''.

Many felt that the Government had made a good beginning, issuing ID cards to over 70 per cent of the voters. They should streamline the system of issuing the cards. The Collector said there was a very little scope for bogus votes since 90 per cent of the electorate who had exercised their franchise were having ID cards.

Tiruchi LS bypoll

The election to the Tiruchi Lok Sabha byelection went off peacefully yesterday and the voting percentage was a moderate 58 compared to 47 per cent in 1999.

Out of 12.24 lakh voters in the Tiruchi-I, Tiruchi- II, Tiruverumbur, Srirangam, Musiri and Lalgudi Assembly segments, 7.1 lakhs cast their votes - of whom 3.75 lakhs were men and 3.35 lakhs women. The highest percentage of voting was in the Musiri constituency, where 65 per cent of the voters cast their votes, and the lowest was in Tiruverumbur where only 49.5 per cent of the voters turned up.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : State Elections
Previous : Independents sans agents, a problem
Next     : Will voters fall victim to political apathy?