Rajasthan Assembly Polls 2023: High Voter Turnout Marks Polarized Elections In Muslim-Dominated Seats

After a high-octane campaign on Hindutva and alleged appeasement politics of ruling Congress, a good voting turnout has been reported on Muslim-dominating seats where Hindu and Muslim candidates were in a direct fight. The figures hint at the polarization of votes and results in these seats are expected to be interesting. 

This time in Rajasthan, voters have cast more votes than in the previous elections. The voting percentage so far, including EVM voting and postal ballot, is 74.96 per cent, which is 0.90 per cent more than last time, but this is not the final figure yet, because the final data of 17 seats could not be awaited. The final voting turnout is expected to reach above 76 per cent in the state. 

Reasons for the increase in voter turnout

Voter turnout has increased, but there are many reasons for this and one of them is good voting on Muslim-dominated seats where the average voter turnout was more than 70 per cent.

The maximum votes in the state have been cast on the seats where the saints of both Hindus and Muslims were contesting. The highest voting turnout of 87.79 per cent has been reported in Pokhran where Mahant Pratap Puri was in the fray from BJP and Saleh Mohammad son of Ghazi Fakeer, a Muslim saint was from Congress.

Similarly, in Tijara where the BJP had fielded sitting MP Baba Balaknath in front of Imran Khan of Congress, the voter turnout was 85.15, the second highest in the state. The seat is dominated by Meo Muslims.

Through a political analyst's lens

The observers believe that voter turnout on these two seats hints at the kind of polarization that took place in the voting of this election in the state. Political analyst Jagdish Sharma said, "Muslims always vote in good numbers and as the BJP was targeting Congress on appeasement politics,  the polarization of votes was expected and this is what has happened in seats like Pokhran and Tijara. If Muslims have turned up in chunks, the Hindus also came out in a good number in response to that."

Notably, the BJP was constantly hitting Congress on appeasement politics and putting forward its agenda of Hindutva by giving tickets to four saints, by not giving tickets to Muslims and by sending UP CM Yogi Adityanath for campaign on as many seats as possible. 

Sources in BJP said that the incidents of the beheading of Kanhiya Lal in Udaipur,  communal tension in Karoli, Bhilwara, Jodhpur and other places and prohibitory orders by the administration on the occasion of festivals during the last five years were the reasons for  BJP to target the state government and what the party has done was a part of the strategy. 

Vote percentage of major Muslim-dominated seats

Pokaran – 87.79

Tijara - 85.15

Shiva - 80.66

Kamaan - 77.80

Ramgarh - 77.40

Churu – 76.10

Pushkar – 76.64

Hawa Mahal – 76.29

Kishanpol – 76.87

Adarsh ​​Nagar - 72.98

Sawai Madhopur - 70.27

Ajmer North - 67.30