Despite a media blitzkrieg by the Election Commission the low voter turnout has become a big talking point in the ongoing multiphase 2024 Lok Sabha elections with the political pundits splitting the semantic hair as to which party is going to gain and which party will lose from this phenomenon.

As per the data released by the Election Commission the second phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh on which voting was conducted in eight parliamentary constituencies the voter turnout was 54.85% which was 7% less than the 62% voting witnessed for the same seats in 2019.

Mathura saw a massive 12% drop from 61.03% in 2019 elections and the voter turnout was 49.29%. Voter turnout was 49.65% representing a drop of % from 55.83% in 2019. Amroha recorded a voter turnout of 64.02% polling, 58.70% in Meerut, 56.62% in Aligarh, 55.97% in Baghpat, 55.79% in Bulandshahr and 53 % in Gautam Buddh Nagar. The first phase of the polling in UP which happened on April 19 saw a voter turnout of 60.25%, as compared to 66.50% voting recorded in 2019.

The low voter turnout has pulled out the political parties from their stupor and booth level workers have been mobilized to get maximum votes polled at the respective booths. The EC has also directed all the electoral returning officers to motivate voters to exercise their franchise. However it seems the voters are not very keen to exercise their franchise rights.

There are many reasons for this lack of empathy among the voters which include the absence of emotive issues among the voters, harvest season in the rural areas, increasing temperatures and also disenchantment among grass roots party workers who are the driving force who motivate the voters to come out and vote in large numbers.

However the low voter turnout has started a slug fest between the political parties with each claiming that it is winning in the elections. The Uttar Pradesh Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh and minister of state for cooperation JPS Rathore have proclaimed that voting trends are in favor of BJP.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in a post on X, talked about the strange trend but also declared that the voter has voted for the INDIA bloc in large numbers and the votes for BJP has steadily gone down. Uttar Pradesh Congress in-charge Avinash Pande said the voters are excited and it is a vote for a change and the INDIA candidates are winning by a big margin. Rashtriya Lok Dal, a component of NDA  chief Jayant Chaudhary, said that the alliance will win 80 seats in UP.

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A private video allegedly featuring Prajwal Revanna, a Member of Parliament (MP) from Hassan district in Karnataka, has been leaked on the internet.

As this news began to dominate the media, his election agent filed a police complaint claiming that the videos were morphed to defame his public image and influence the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Prajwal Revanna, a Sitting Member of Parliament (MP), Allegedly Has Private Video Leaked Online

On Tuesday, Poornachandra Tejaswi MG, the election agent for both the JD(S) and the BJP, filed a police complaint alleging that Naveen Gowda and others were responsible for the leak.

They reportedly circulated the video to voters in the Hassan Lok Sabha segment via WhatsApp, pen drives, and CDs. The FIR states:

“Naveen Gowda and others morphed videos and images and circulated them to the voters in the Hassan Lok Sabha segment through pen drives, CDs and WhatsApp to put Prajwal Revanna in bad light. These accused are going door to door and showing obscene photos and videos, provoking people not to vote for Prajwal in the Lok Sabha elections. These efforts are being made to disrupt the polling.”

In response, the police have filed a complaint under the sections of the Information Technology Act of 2008 and the Indian Penal Code.

Prajwal Revanna is the son of Holenarasipura MLA and former minister H D Revanna, and the grandson of former Prime Minister H D Devegowda. He is seeking a second term and is currently running against Congress candidate Shreyas M Patel, the grandson of G Puttaswamy Gowda.

In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Puttaswamy Gowda won against Devegowda on a Congress ticket. On April 26, the Hassan constituency will participate in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

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The massive electoral exercise of the Lok Sabha Elections for 2024 is in full swing and the second phase of the election has commenced. In the second phase the fate of the candidates of 89 constituencies spread across 13 states will be decided by the voters. Uttar Pradesh is the most important state with more than 80 Lok Sabha seats. In the second phase of the election voters will vote for eight Lok Sabha seats.

Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha seats which will go for the polls include Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Amroha, Meerut, Aligarh,  Bulandshahar, Mathura, and Baghpat. Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, and Gautam Buddh Nagar will see a triangular contest between NDA bloc, the Opposition INDIA alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mathura and Ghaziabad will see a straight contest between BJP and Congress. In Aligarh and Bulandshahr the BJP will lock horns with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party.

The Details are as follows-

• Amroh -Kanwar Singh Tanwar(BJP) ,Danish Ali (Congress).Mujahid Hussain(BSP)
• Meerut   – Arun Govil (BJP),Sunita Verma Pradhan (Samajwadi Party),Mujahid Hussain(BSP)
• Mathura-Hema Malini (BJP),Mukesh Dhangar (Congress)         —
• Baghpat-Rajkumar Sangwan (RLD),Amarpal Sharma (Samajwadi Party),Praveen Bansal(BSP)
• Aligarh-Satish Kumar Gautam (BJP),Bijendra Singh (Samajwadi Party) —
• Ghaziabad-Atul Garg (BJP) ,Dolly Sharma (Congress)           —
• Budh Nagar-Dr Mahesh Sharma (BJP),Mahendra Nagar (Samajwadi Party),R.S.Solanki(BSP)
• Bulandshahar-Bhola Singh (BJP),Shivram Valmiki (Samajwadi Party)     —

Many prominent personalities will find their fate locked in the EVM machines and this includes Hema Malini who will be eying for her third win from Mathura. She is pitted against Mukesh Dhangar from the Congress party.

Another star Arun Govil is standing from the BJP from Meerut and he is pitted against Sunita Verma from the SP and Devvrat Tyagi from the BSP. Arun Govil had played the character of Lord Rama in the Ranananda Sagar 1987 serial Ramayan

MP Kunwar Danish Ali has changed party and is now standing as a Congress candidate Amroha, a constituency historically without a strong allegiance to any particular party. He stood and won as a BSP candidate in 2019. He will be pitted against Kanwar Singh Tanwar of the BJP and Mujahid Hussain of the BSP.

As per reports in the first four hours a voter turnout of 24.31 per cent was recorded in the eight parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh in phase two of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday. The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.