The Maharashtra Assembly elections will once again face a sour test in terms of urban voter turnout in the state. Urban India contributes 65% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and cities are being designed as growth hubs to propel India towards becoming a $5 trillion economy. It is therefore surprising that the urban population lags behind the rural population by about 10 percentage points in voting.

Maharashtra has the highest urban population among all states and Union Territories (UTs); at 51 million, it is over 45% of the state’s total population, spread over 43 cities and a large number of townships. In the last three assembly elections, when the national voter turnout consistently crossed 66%, backed by a determined voter engagement program by the ECI, Maharashtra lagged behind with a voter turnout of 60-61%, due to the mediocre showing of its towns and cities. In the last Lok Sabha elections, Kalyan, Pune, Thane and South, North-Central and South-Central Mumbai had the unenviable distinction of being among the 50 constituencies with the lowest voter turnout. All constituencies in Mumbai lagged behind the state average by 5-10 percentage points. In the 2019 assembly polls, against a modest statewide turnout of 60.56%, constituencies like Colaba, Dombivli, Versova, Ambernath, Airoli, Kalyan West, all in Mumbai and Thane districts, voted with a paltry 40-42% turnout.

Maharashtra’s cities may exhibit the worst of urban apathy, but they are not exclusive to this famous club. In the Haryana assembly polls, while the state average was close to 68%, the assembly constituencies (AC) of Gurgaon and Faridabad barely scraped past 52-53%. In the 2019 assembly elections in Jharkhand, urban segments of Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur trailed the state’s 64.38% by around 10 percentage points. Out of a total of 78 urban seats in the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan last year, 71 performed below their respective overall state levels. Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, an elite residential area, had a staggering 25 percentage point gap with the state’s impressive overall voter turnout of 72%.

Urban Bengaluru, with its tech professionals and middle-class concentration, has earned the infamy of low voting. Bommanahalli in south Bengaluru trailed the state’s voter turnout by 26 percentage points in the last assembly elections. That all 24 assembly segments in three urban parliamentary constituencies of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) performed below the state participation, while five of the eight segments in rural Bengaluru passed the state average, is telling.

In 2022, Gujarat suffered a four percentage point decline in voter turnout compared to 2017, largely due to low turnout in urban areas such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Jamnagar. Gandhidham presented the worst case with a voter turnout of 48.14%. Himachal Pradesh, in the same year, registered a record voter turnout of 75.78%, but urban Shimla had a low of 62.53%. The story in Delhi has been similar. Even Chennai and parts of Kolkata, capitals of states that see high polling, have seen low turnouts.

There can be any number of reasons for not voting – lack of registration, inclement weather, long lines and even skepticism about politics. There may be a case for parties to change their agenda to appeal to the urban population. The idea of ​​remote voting can be pursued. But none of these is a panacea for urban apathy. For the past 10 years, the most critical of voters have been offered the choice None of the Above (NOTA) on (EVM) to reject any contestant if they so choose.

Recognizing the problem, ECI has offered solutions such as identifying pockets of voting deficit, innovative voter turnout plans (TIP), improved IT-based facilitation, engaging with residential communities, communication campaigns with popular icons and calling in metro commissioners to reach out to voters. Election leaders have tried to move polling stations close to residential areas, create amenities around polling booths and make waiting in lines less cumbersome. But arrangements to facilitate voting will fail if the educated city dweller refrains from exercising his democratic right and duty. Underscoring that polling this time is on a Wednesday in Maharashtra, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar sought to debunk a fairly common but pathetic reason behind low polls in cities – scheduling of polls leading to weekend travel.

Almost 43% of polling booths above one lakh in Maharashtra are in urban areas. On November 20, it will be seen if city dwellers overcome past habits and smartly queue to support their claims of concern over governance and democracy.

Akshay Rout is former Director General, Election Commission of India. The opinions expressed are personal