Parties urge citizens to up voting percentage

Worried about the possible low voters’ turnout for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections on February 16, politicians are going all out to ensure that citizens vote.

Many candidates are using  technology to help voters locate polling booths .

Ranjit Shirole, secretary of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), told DNA that MNS leaders and candidates have urged citizens to vote.

“Voting percentage for the general election was 40%, for assembly elections 45%. It is the educated middle class that does not come to vote and we are urging them to use
their franchise to make a difference,” he said.

According to Shirole, many MNS candidates have campaigned from door to door with hand-held devices that give out printed slips after locating the voters’ polling booth details.

A similar exercise is being carried out by Pune Janahit Aghadi candidate from Ved Bhavan, Anagha Paranjape-Purohit, who stated that many of the voters she had come across are confused about the location of the polling booths. “Our whole focus is now based on how to ensure the voters get to know the details of their polling booths well before poll day and the next two days we will be concentrating our energies for that only,” she said.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate from Kamala Nehru Park, Ameya Jagtap has undertaken a special voters’ awareness drive. “My friends from Youth2Youth have conducted rallies in the area, urging people to come out and vote in general,” he said.