Poor turnout in Mumbai: Parties press panic button, pull voters to polling booths

Following the low voter turn out in Mumbai, political parties have hit the panic button and are resorting to all sort of measures to get the voters to polling booth. Political parties are even making vehicle arrangement for public to bring them to the polling booth. “Actually, we were expecting good voter turn out due to the multi cornered contest but are surprised with low voter turn out. We have now instructed our party workers to go each building in their respective areas to get the voters to polling booth,” said Santosh Deshpande, a MNS worker from Dadar area. [caption id=“attachment_1758183” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] He also added that they were making vehicle arrangement for the people. Shiv Sena activists said that they were closely watching the voter turn out. “After seeing the poor voter turnout till 2 pm, we have now asked our cadre, who have been charge of specific buildings, to go door to door to ensure all people come and vote,” said a Sena activist from Shivaji Park area in Dadar. He added that all parties had booth wise list of voters to crosscheck the voter turn out. “If the voter turnout is not as per our assessment, then we are asking the party workers to ensure the same,” he said adding that party workers would also help elderly and disabled people to reach the polling booth to cast their votes. In case of Dharavi assembly constituency, the BJP is using the RSS network to bring the people to the polling booth. “We are now trying to ensure that our core votes are polled to us,” said Arvind Parmar, BJP worker from Dharavi, who is monitoring the campaign in the area.