Voting Figures In Punjab Erratic, Big Drop In Areas That Chose AAP

Voting figures in Punjab this time has turned out to be a mammoth 4.3 per cent more than the tentative figures announced by the Election Commission at 5 pm yesterday. The provisional turnout figure at the end of Sunday's voting was 65.32 per cent. The revised turnout figure announced today was 69.65 per cent. Not only is this the lowest figure since 2007, the gap in the tentative and final voting figures is also unprecedented. Mostly, the figures differ by 1 per cent.

The figures also reveal that the turnout was particularly low in areas where Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party claimed to have a solid support base. The constituencies which had sitting MLAs from AAP have all shown a dip in polling, ranging from 2.3 per cent to over 9 per cent.  

In Talwandi Sabo, where Baljinder Kaur is the sitting MLA, the figures have dropped from 86 per cent to 83.70 per cent,  a drop of 2.3 per cent. In Kotkapura, it is down by 4 per cent, in Dirba, where Harpal Singh Cheema is contesting, it is down by 4.4 per cent. The corresponding figure in Sunam is 5.4, Barnala 6.6 per cent, Budhlada 6.2 per cent, Mehal Kalan, 9.4 per cent and in Jagraon it is down by 9.8 per cent.

While the state recorded 65.14 per cent polling in 2002, the numbers had been high since -- 75.42 per cent in 2007, 78.3 per cent in 2012 and 77.36 per cent in 2017.

Amritsar West recorded the lowest voter turnout of 55.40%. Gidderbaha in Muktsar district recorded the highest turnout of 84.93.

Conventional wisdom suggests that a low voting figure is indicative of a status quo, while a higher turnout signals a change. Punjab has bucked both trends.  

The second lowest turnout figure in last 20 years was in 2007 -- 68.72 per cent -- but the Akali-BJP alliance came to power that year, sweeping aside the Congress government. In 2017, when the Congress ended the 10-year rule of the Akali-BJP government, the polling figure was 77.36 per cent -- lower than 2012, when the Akali-BJP government won its second term.

This year, all the parties in fray -- the Congress and its big challenger AAP -- have claimed a wave in their favour.  

The huge spike in final turnout figures appeared a trend this year. Data shows a similar rise in the four other states that went to polls. In Goa, the figures jumped from 75.29 per cent at 5 pm to 79.16 per cent today -- a 4 per cent difference.

In Uttarakhand, the figures were up from 59.37 per cent to 64.29 per cent.