How Senior Citizens can tilt LS Poll outcome in Ferozepur?
Harish Monga
Ferozepur, march 23, 2019 :
It is said that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will complement Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s efforts in winning over young voters and the brother-sister combine will be a game changer for the party in the Lok Sabha polls as the country needs a young team. But the things are totally different so far as Ferozepur LS constituency is concerned.
No doubt, the Election Commission of India, like previous years, has focused on registration of new voters as the impact of youth voter base in the country has been much praised but with the registration of 18-19 age voters figure in Ferozepur is only 8765, say 0.12 percent.
If we say that senior citizens could be the game changer in the coming elections, it can’t be as per the figures available of voters even if we include 50 Plus, say 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 and 80 Plus group, it comes to only 1,99,812, say 0.28 percent against the total enrolled 7,08,890 voters.
The voters of the age group left are between 20-49, which number comes to 5,00,313 (70% of total votes) (20-29 are 1,78,135, 30-39 are 1,91,174, 40-49 are 131,004) and could be considered as deciding factor to change any game in favour of any candidate or party.
Have you ever thought that this age group voters enlisted in Punjab or in small towns like Ferozepur are residing? Let us take a look that starting from age 20, meaning thereby that he or she, 1998 onwards born but cannot the taken sure as hundred percent educated class. The only 20-49 group could be considered as highly qualified but majority of these age group voters are not residing in Punjab but settled in other states or abroad after acquiring professional qualifications in various streams.
No doubt the Priyanka-Rahul are confident to attract more young people in the mainstream and India too needs young voters and young leaders, frankly speaking, that with such analysis, I don’t think, new-voters, youngsters between the age group of 18-40 could play a vital role in deciding the candidate or selecting party to vote for. For this young leaders have to be fielded to contest the elections to allure the young voters to use their right to franchise by visiting their home towns.
Otherwise, again the game changers will only be voters of the age group of 50-79 and 80 Plus who is none else than senior citizens – which comes to around 1,99,812 ( 28% of total votes) -who are either at the verge of retirement or retired and settled in the city itself rather available to vote on the day of the election.
So far as the percentage of polls during the last elections in 2014, it was 61.31 in Ferozepur City and 74.46 in Ferozepur Rural against 64.52 in 2009 and 79.22 in 2009 respectively. Seeing the percentage of the poll of the age group of 20-49 as 70%, only 28% of senior citizens could change the game.
Frankly speaking, the primary reason behind depending upon the senior citizen voters is the migration of second and third generation to the foreign countries, who left their parents in Ferozepur and available for voting. Moreover, they are more updated with the new political developments at the local, state and national level. Thus, Senior Citizens can tilt LS Polls outcome in Ferozepur.
Over to Senior Citizens!