45% Puneites not going to hometown to vote

Pune: Due to lack of a digital medium of voting in the election, a lot of voters will miss out on exercising their voting rights since many live in other cities for jobs, business and education and have to skip voting because of travel constraints. 

As high as 45 per cent of Indian voters in the survey cited that they will not be travelling back to their hometowns to cast their votes. 

While 42 per cent of the voters from Bangalore, as per the survey will not be going back to their hometowns for elections. 

The same trend is observed in other cities too, such as Mumbai (47 per cent) and Pune (45 per cent). 

However, this election, over 55 per cent Puneites will be travelling back to their hometowns to cast their votes. 

National survey
India’s highest-rated news app, Inshorts, published these results of its ‘Pulse of the Nation’ survey on the outlook of young Indians in the upcoming General Elections. The survey also highlighted that 24 per cent Indian voters are doubtful of the authenticity of EVM. 

The survey conducted on the Inshorts app saw participation from over 2 lakh subscribers across the country in the month of March. 

The majority of participants were from Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. 

These typically represent urban millennials aged between 18 and 35 years. Similarly, 85 per cent of Indian voters thinks that voting should be made compulsory. 

Elections in the digital age 
When asked if EVM was an authentic method to cast votes, 76 per cent of the survey respondents were in favour of it, however, 24 per cent Indian voters still are doubtful of its authenticity.

Over 46 per cent Indian voters think that the option of NOTA (None of The Above) is not functioning well to bring out the purpose of voting. 

Increased awareness of voting rights
It was interesting to see that while 85 per cent Indian voters said that voting should be made compulsory but only 63 per cent cast their votes every time without fail. People put in much thought before casting their votes in support of one candidate over another. About 74 per cent of Indian voters stated in the survey that they do extensive research about each candidate before voting for them to win from their constituency. Although the difference may be small but cities such as Mumbai (66 pc), Hyderabad (77 pc), Pune (75 pc) and Bangalore (75 pc) are ahead in comparison to others in terms of making an informed decision before casting their votes.

Commenting on the Survey, Azhar Iqbal, CEO, Inshorts, said, “The upcoming Lok Sabha elections have created a euphoria amongst urban Indian millennials. The survey throws light on how the perceptions about elections have changed. Nowadays, people are aware of their rights and consider casting votes, a responsibility as citizens.”