Maharashtra at 65% & Mumbai (54.8%) post their best turnout in 30 years

MUMBAI: Voters of Maximum City shed their reputation for being Minimally Interested in actually voting, polling a three-decade record turnout of 54.8% according to EC's 11.30pm update. Maharashtra as a whole also recorded a 30-year high of 65.1%.

The last time the numbers were higher for both Mumbai and Maharashtra was in 1995, at 58.7% and 71.7% respectively. Wednesday's numbers are likely to rise, at least marginally. The change in voter behaviour is reflected in the fact that in LS polls, Mumbai's turnout was 54.1% and Maharashtra's 61.3%. This flies in the face of the long-established convention that turnout for assembly polls is lower than for LS. Assembly poll turnout in 2019 was 50.5% and 51.8% in 2014.

Assembly poll turnout in 2019 was 50.5% and 51.8% in 2014. Before that, it had failed to reach 50% in 1999, 2004 and 2009. The turnout across Maharashtra was 61.1% in 2019 and 63% in 2014.

But the island city of Mumbai continued to be electorally apathetic, with the lowest turnout of 52.1% - in Colaba, it was a paltry 44.5%. Mumbai's suburbs showed somewhat greater interest, at 55.8%.

On Wednesday, the Naxal-affected district of Gadchiroli recorded the second-highest turnout of 73.7%, after Kolhapurat 76.3%.

This is the first state election after the dramatic split of Shiv Sena and NCP which recast political alignments in Maharashtra. The election is considered a neck-and-neck fight between the governing Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

While MVA won 30 of the 48 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha polls six months ago, some of the confidence that flowed from that impressive performance was deflated by BJP's unforeseen win in the Haryana polls in Oct.

Several factors appear to have contributed to the higher turnout in Mumbai. EC had taken special efforts to improve turnout in urban areas. Not only was the election declared mid-week on a Wednesday but a holiday was also declared on polling day.

A large number of housing societies in the state were allowed their own polling booths - 1,183 compared to 150 in the LS elections earlier this year.

While the city reported no major incidents, polling day in parts of the state was tense with unprecedented skirmishes between opponents.

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