Hyderabad has a literacy rate of 83% and it is natural for one to expect the city to have a good voting turnout and polling percentage. But that hasn’t been the case over the past few years.
In 2009, 14, 18 elections, only 1 of the total 24 urban constituencies in GHMC area saw the polling percentage crossing the 60% mark and that constituency is Patancheruvu.
The financially sound Jubilee Hills segment saw a staggering low 45% polling percentage in 2018. Yakutpura and Malakpet saw even worse trends with 42% voting percentage. The overall polling percentage in GHMC area in 2018 was in sub 49% region, which is a shockingly low tally.
To put that into perspective, the rural pockets of Telangana have a much better voter turnout. Like for instance, Komaram Bheem district has a literacy rate of 56%, but this constituency saw a polling percentage of 85% in the last election.
Other rural belts like Munugode, Palair, and Madhira saw 91, 92, and 92% polling respectively.
Perhaps it is time the urbane voters take a cue from their rural counterparts and GHMC take the big step of turning out to cast their vote. With all companies and institutions mandated to give a holiday on the day of polling – 30 November, it has to be seen if GHMC will fare any better in this year’s election.
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