Mumbai: Maharashtra has got the election fever with record 36 lakh plus new voters registering their names for inclusion in the electoral rolls since November 1, 2018, when the summary revision of electoral rolls commenced. The process is expected to end on January 4, by which time this figure may go up.
In 2018, only 15,53,883 new voters registered themselves. However, the record number of 56,89,104 new enrolments were done just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Confirming the data, an official at the State Secretariat told The Hindu, “This (36 lakh enrolments) is not unusual since we are entering an election year. It is also true that political awareness seems to be on an upswing.”
He said while after every five years, the election year is preceded by the maximum number of voter enrolments, this trend is changing. “For instance in 2017, when there were elections slated for local bodies like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, we had registered 36,98,021 new voters,” he said.
Apparently the new generation of emerging voters has become more aware and inclined towards exercising their franchise, he said.
The 56 lakh plus new voter registrations in 2014 was followed by only 13,32,574 new enrolments in 2015 and 18,92,351 in 2016. The year 2017 witnessed a fresh surge of 36,98,021 new voters which was followed in 2018 by only 15,53,883 new enrolments.
The official said, “On an average in Maharashtra, around 20 lakh youths become eligible for voting every year. Of them, a good majority fail to register unless it is a significant election year. This build-up over four years then results in the sudden surge of new registrations in the election year.”
The electoral department bases its assessment on the fact that annually there are up to 18 lakh students who appear for SSC, CBSE, and the HSC examinations. If the number of possible dropouts or those who may have entered vocational education after completing either SSC or HSC is added, the figure would range around 20 lakh.
“Sadly, we do not have the electoral data prior to 2012, all records of which were destroyed in the fire that gutted the fifth-floor office of the State Election Commission,” he said.
The 8.44 crore voters (4.43 crore men and 4.01 crore women) in Maharashtra as on November 1, 2018, has swelled up by 0.36 crore (36 lakh voters so far) in the ongoing exercise of the summary revision of electoral rolls. Mumbai has witnessed over two lakh new voter registrations.
A senior secretariat official said, “The projected population of Maharashtra stands at 12.6 crore (after factoring in the annual average increase since the last census of 2011). We have already noted that over 36 lakh new voter applications are being processed. A majority of them are those who have turned 18 years.”
As on November 1, 2018, more than the rural hinterlands, Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, and Aurangabad had seen the bulk of the new registrations. Mumbai (city segment) had 13,49,692 registered male voters, 11,09,410 female voters, and 106 third gender voters. Similarly, Mumbai (suburban segment) had 37,25,323 male voters, 30,92,946 female voters, and 456 voters belonging to the third gender. The total number of voters in the two segments of Mumbai pegged at 24,59,208 voters (city segment) and 68,18,725 voters (suburban region) with 92,77,933 voters, has now increased by two lakh.
The high-density voter bases in Maharashtra also include Pune with 71,89,265 voters, Nashik with 42,60,393, Jalgaon with 32,93,157, Amaravati with 23,34,854 voters, Nagpurwith 38,73,959, Yavatmal with 20,38,514, Nanded with 24,06,859 voters, Aurangabad with 26,49,641, Ahmednagar with 33,18,555, Solapur with 32,26,683, Satara with 23,87,877, Kolhapur with 29,65,314, Raigad with 21,61,614, and Sangli with 22,33,831 voters.