Urban apathy in voting is seen in most big cities. Polling percentages rarely touch 60. So nearly half the electorate don't vote to determine who should run their city Voter inertia is mostly in urban areas. This is evi dent in polling percentages in most big cities in the country.

In the last Lok Sabha polls, India's 'tech-capital' Bengaluru recorded just 55% turnout, Mumbai recorded 53%, Hyderabad registered 53% and Delhi registered 65%.There are some exceptions such as Kolkata and Chennai where the voting percentage recorded in the last Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections has been in the range of 65% to 70%.

Even states like Manipur and Jharkhand, plagued by militant attacks and Maoist problems, witness a robust voter turnout. The turnout in the assembly elections held this year in Punjab and Goa has been 75% and 83%, respectively.

For all the efforts that the state election commission and citizens' groups took this time to increase voter turnout for the civic election, the voting percentage remained a dismal 55.5 in Pune, up only 4.5 % since 2012. Pimpri Chinchwad was a bright spot though with a polling percentage of 67.

But compare Pune city's civic poll figures with that of the Pune Zilla Parishad elections. In 2012, 65% voters turned up to cast their ballots in the Zilla Parishad polls. This year, the figure touched 70%.

The apathy towards exercising one's franchise has been evident in the last five elections in Pune city, but there were expectations that with a slew of projects like metro and the new airport, and Smart City plans, citizens would come out in large numbers and cast their votes.

Since 1992, the voting percentage for the civic polls has been between 50 and 60% with the 2012 election registering the lowest (51%).

"We expected a much higher voter turnout in both Pune and in Mumbai. There is no excuse for not voting. If, as a voter, you are not happy with the candidate, you should exercise the NOTA option. Not coming out to vote is not the option,'' Indira Malkani of VCan said. She has been working with the state election commission to increase the voting percentage.

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By staying away, citizens don't excercise right to vote | Pune News ... - Times of India