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Women voting percentage has incresed in Uttarakhand Assembly election-2017 and it has given knee jerk to both political parties i.e. BJP and congress. BJP believes that if they come out due to demonetisation then their chances are bleak while congress says that they were anticipating that women, who have lost their deposit due to demonetisation, would vote to punish BJP for demonetisation so CM Harish Rawat decided to challenge them from two plain districts of Uttarakhand.
It should be noted here that after demonetisation, the women who used to save money by restraining their daily expenditure, had become cashless because they had to hand over the money to their husbands, most of whom have not returned the money to their wives because of liquidity crunch in bank. In view of this CM Rawat, who preferred to contest assembly by-poll by persuading sitting Congress MLA from Dharchula, Harish Dhami despite availability of vacant seat – Doiwala — in the year 2014 after becoming chief minister of Uttarakhand, decided to challenge the BJP from two seats of plain districts. Voters in four out of 13 districts of Uttarakhand- Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar and Dehradun elect 36 out of 70 members of Uttarakhand Assembly and people in these four districts were badly affected by demonetisation.
As per the latest polling percentage which was released by election commission on February 21, the polling percentage which was moving upward since 2002 has dropped in the assembly election-2017. Between the two assembly elections — 2012 and 2017, the number of voters has increased by about 13 lakh but the polling percentage has declined by about two per cent. In this election 69.34 per cent women have used their democratic right while 62.28 per cent men cast their votes.
If one considers the trend in the previous assembly election-2012 then women percentage in these four districts of Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar and Dehradun was 68.31, 76.46, 74.22, 68.06 percent respectively while in this year women polling percentage is 68.80, 77.30, 76.14 and 65.93 per cent respectively in these constituencies. This surprising election data has dilated the eyes of political parties and poll pundits as well. Both political parties BJP and Congress have been citing these trends which have boosted their morale officially but unofficially they themselves are surprised because it was unexpected for them.
On condition of anonymity, a senior leader said that high polling per cent shows anti-incumbency against the incumbent government but that seems immaterial as they have been claiming that party is winning because of prime minister Narendra Modi’s wave only.
