Kolhapur adds new Gen Z voters as municipal election turnout expected to rise

Kolhapur: The district administration expects a strong turnout in the upcoming municipal corporation polls on Thursday as Kolhapur usually sets high voter turnout records across elections.The city has added 4,060 new Gen Z voters for the municipal elections this year. All these voters will exercise their right to vote for the first time on Thursday. A total of 4,94,711 voters are expected to cast their votes on Thursday.In 2015, the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation elections recorded 70% voter turnout, whereas in 2010, 67.7% voter turnout was recorded.For the last state assembly elections, Kolhapur district recorded the highest voter turnout of 76.6%. For the Lok Sabha elections, Kolhapur district recorded 71.76% in 2024.The administration this year also expects high voter turnout for the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation elections. KMC administrator K Manjulekshmi said, "Various measures have been taken through the SVEEP initiative to create voter awareness and to clear the confusion regarding 4 times voting due to 4-member ward formation. Human chair formation, voter awareness rallies, Matdan Doud, street plays, prabhat pheri, essay competitions, rangoli competitions, letter-writing competitions, etc. were held. We are hoping that the voter turnout this year will exceed the 2015 voter turnout."