SILCHAR, April 20 - Amidst constant efforts by the Election Commission of India to increase the voter turnout for the Lok Sabha election, Barak Valley witnessed spontaneous participation of female voters who have significantly outnumbered the males.
According to the latest data received from Karimganj parliamentary constituency, which includes three Assembly constituencies of Hailakandi district, out of 13,38,005 voters, as many as 9,78,699 voters exercised their franchise on April 18, thereby accounting for 73.15 poll percentage. The seat had 14 candidates in the fray,
Out of the total voters, 5,01,982 (78.27 per cent) were female voters (including third gender), while 4,76,717 (68.43 per cent) were male voters. Interestingly, while there were 18 voters in the third gender category, including 10 from the three constituencies of Hailakandi, no votes were cast as per the data received from official sources.
On the other hand, latest reports received from the District Election Office for the Silchar parliamentary seat which had 13 candidates, suggests that out of 11,91,289 voters as many as 9,44,136 voters exercised their franchise across all the polling stations, thereby registering a poll percentage of 79.25 per cent as compared to 75.45 in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Here, 4,59,088 female voters (79.52 percent) cast their votes while the number of male voters was 4,85, 047(79.01 per cent). Of the 78 voters from the third gender category, two votes were cast, one each at Borkhola and Silchar LACs.
It may be mentioned that various steps were taken under SVEEP across all the districts to motivate the voters, females in particular, for the two parliamentary constituencies.
In Hailakandi district, Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli took innovative steps, including distribution of sanitary napkins, organising Saas-Bahu Sammelan, stickers in the jaapis of female workers in the tea gardens, conch bangles with appeals to vote on April 18 so as to remind the voters to come out and cast their valuable votes.
Similarly, the Cachar district administration under Deputy Commissioner Laya Madduri also reached out to the young voters with appeals by organising debates, posters and caption contests in which females and the youngsters took active part.
