Lucknow Municipal Corporation elections: Will city again witness low voter turnout?

LUCKNOW: Will the city of Nawabs be able to shed the tag of ‘laid back attitude’ and come out in large numbers to vote in the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) elections on Thursday?
The questions assume importance because civic issues of Bijli-Sadak-Pani that affect the daily lives of the people are key factors in urban local bodies elections, but turnout in these polls in Lucknow has always been low in comparison to assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

For instance, the residents of the state capital registered a 44.70 per cent voter turnout in 2007, which fell by 10% in 2012 and the total voter turnout in municipal corporation limits was 34.10 %. Five years later, the turnout saw only a 4.5 % increase — and the total turnout was 38.60%.

The low participation of voters in civic body polls can be gauged from the fact that in the 2022 state assembly polls, the five constituencies coming in LMC limits recorded an average of 55.8%, while in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Lucknow constituency registered 54.7% voter turnout.

According to the state election commission (SEC), back in 2017, zone 4 of LMC which comprise Nishatganj, Gomtinagar, Arjunganj, Ahmamau, Papermill colony, Polytechnic, Huseria, Patrakarpuram, Chinhat, Matiyari, Malesemau and Kamta –one of the highly posh areas of city has registered lowest turnout 35.43%.
Followed by Zone 1 Hazratganj, Charbagh, Aminabad, Lalbagh, Kaiserganj, Golaganj, Basmandi, Naka recorded 36.83% turnout, while Zone 5 areas including Alambagh, Chandernagar, Mawaiya, Suryanagar, Devpur Para, Talkatora road, Jai Prakash Nagar and Harihar Prasad Nagar registered 36.84% voter turnout.
The highest turnout of 41.62% was recorded in Zone 2 area of Aishbagh, Mill Road, Railway Colony, Shastri Nagar, Goodshed Road, and in Zone 6 (40.04%) areas of Chowk, Ambarganj, Husainabad, Daultaganj, Balaganj, Sadatganj, Alamnagar and Haiderganj. Apparently, areas in Zone 2 and 6 are one of the most densely populated areas with poor civic amenities.
Meanwhile, this year SEC has claimed that 29.24 lakh voters have been registered in city limits including 13.67 lakh female voters. A total of 2,510 polling booths have been installed in 110 wards. To promote women's participation, the SEC has installed one pink booth at the Municipal Nursery school near Mall Avenue.
According to the SEC, there are 760 sensitive polling booths in city limits.