AMBALA: The voting percentage in the Ambala City Municipal Corporation (MC) election 2020 remained at 56.3% as compared to 67% in 2013.
As per the official data of Haryana state election commission, there are 1,87,604 voters registered in Ambala City MC jurisdiction, of which, only 1,05,683 exercised their voting right on Sunday, for directly electing their mayor and councilors.
The reasons behind the low voter turnout are being speculated due to Covid-19, cold weather and less enthusiasm among local residents about this election.
As for the first time ever, the mayor of MC was being elected through direct election, it was expected that the voter turnout would cross the percentage recorded in the year 2013, but it did not happen so.
As per the information, the first election of Ambala City MC had concluded on June 2, 2013, when Ambala Sadar Municipal Council (MC) was also along and there were about 2,72,986 registered voters.
Ambala based advocate of Punjab and Haryana high court, Hemant Kumar said, “In the 2013 Ambala MC election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won a total four seats including three in Ambala Sadar MC and one in Ambala City MC. Whereas, the independent candidates backed by Congress had won 16 seats and the mayor was elected by the elected councilors.”
In July 2019, Ambala Sadar MC was separated from Ambala City MC and 12 new villages from rural areas of the city block were added to the corporation.
Ambala City MC election returning officer (RO) Sachin Gupta said, “The voting turnout has remained normal if we compared the percentage with the other civic bodies like Panchkula and Sonipat. We ran an awareness campaign through various activities to motivate the residents to vote. The reason why the turnout is low as compared to 2013 election could be that earlier there was Ambala Sadar area which was later separated. Another reason could be the Covid-19 apprehension among the residents.”