Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Thane collector promises corrective action as EC flags urban voter apathy in district

Thane: Amid concerns by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar over urban apathy in areas, including Maharashtra’s Thane, District Collector Ashok Shingare on Wednesday promised to take corrective measures.

Shingare said they have identified the factors behind the poor turnout in urban localities like Thane city in the district.

“We are really really concerned about urban apathy. We want to appeal to all voters in urban areas to come and vote. It is not a healthy trend which is reflected,” CEC Kumar said as he announced on Tuesday the poll schedules for Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

“Look at Gurgaon, look at Faridabad, recently, last election Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Bengaluru South, Gandhinagar, Colaba, Pune, Thane... all are much below state averages of each state,” he said.

In Maharashtra, turnouts in 62 of 64 urban assembly constituencies were less than the state average in 2019, as was the case in Lok Sabha elections, the CEC said.

Collector Shingare said the factors leading to the reduced voting have been identified and they would be addressed in the November 20 assembly polls.

“We are all set for the election and ready to face any challenge”, he said.

The district has 71,55,728 voters, including 33,41,070 women and 1,394 from the third gender.

It has 57,209 voters above the age of 85, while 1,65,597 are in the age group of 18-19.

A total of 6,894 polling booths will be set up in 2,268 locations, including 252 in slum colonies and 337 in housing society premises, for the convenience of voters, he said.