Lok Sabha elections 2019: Fewer women voters than men in Gurugram

The number of female voters is lower than male voters in all the nine assembly constituencies that fall under the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat, shows data shared by the district electoral officer and district commissioner Amit Khatri on Tuesday.

Voting for the general elections will be held in Gurugram on May 12 in the sixth phase. The entire state of Haryana will cast its ballot in one phase.

Nine assembly constituencies spread across three districts fall under the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency: Pataudi, Badshahpur, Gurgaon, Sohna, Nuh, Firozpur Jhirka, Bawal and Rewari assembly constituencies.

While the maximum numbers of female voters in the Badshahpur assembly constituency are 1.64 lakh, Gurgaon comes second with 1.52 lakh female voters. At 75,678, Nuh has the lowest number of female voters.

Experts, however, said that lesser number of female voters may not necessarily mean a lower turnout of women.

“It’s not surprising that women voters are fewer in comparison to men. In most districts of the country, a similar trend can be seen since voters are in proportion to their share in the population. Usually, a gap of 2-5% can be found between men and women. One might expect that there’d be a differential turnout if women voters are lesser in number, but these days more women vote in comparison to men,” Sanjay Kumar, political analyst and professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said.

So far, the highest turnout of female voters was in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the state saw participation of 45.85% of the female electors, as per Election Commission of India data.

Meanwhile, the Gurugram district administration appointed 19 nodal officers for the general elections. ADC Imran Raza was given charge of election transport management committee and SVEEP activities in the district.

First Published: Mar 13, 2019 03:26 IST