- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Local traders said the marriages and social engagements on the auspicious occasion of Dev Uthani Ekadashi could hurt the voter turnout during the election.
By: Shubham Ghosh
ELECTION authorities in India have decided over a new date for the polls in the north-western state of Rajasthan because of a large number of marriages and social engagements in the state for Dev Uthani Ekadashi, an auspicious occasion for weddings. Initially, the Election Commission of India had announced November 23 as the date for elections to the 200-member state assembly. Now, it has been postponed to November 25. It was even claimed that holding the elections on such a day would hurt the voter turnout.
Four other states will go to polls around the same time and results of all the five state elections will be announced on December 3.
“Representations have been received in the Commission from various political parties, social organisations and also issues raised in various media platforms for change of date of poll considering large scale wedding/social engagement on that day which may cause inconvenience to large number of people, various logistic issues and may lead to reduced voters participation during (Rajasthan assembly) poll,” an official statement from the commission said, Mint reported.
“The Commission, having considered these factors and representations, has decided to change the date of poll from 23rd November, 2023 (Thursday) to 25th November, 2023 (Saturday),” the EC’s official statement said.
The commission announced the schedule for the five-state elections, set to be held between November 7 and 30, on Monday (9).
Rajasthan is currently under the rule of the Indian National Congress, a party which is in opposition at the national level. In 2018, it defeated prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party which is eyeing return to power this time.
The initial polling day in Rajasthan coincided with Dev Uthani Ekadashi, an auspicious occasion when more than 50,000 weddings are likely to take place in the state, and the people involved in the business claimed that this could hurt the voting percentage.
Dev Uthani Ekadashi is the most preferred occasion for weddings. It also marks the beginning of the wedding season.
Trade stakeholders believe that this could affect the voter turnout in the desert state, where the election department has set a target of 75 per cent voter turnout at all the 51,756 polling booths.
The voter turnout in the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly polls was 74.71 per cent.
“Dev Uthani Ekadashi is the most auspicious occasion for weddings and all Hindu castes prefer to hold weddings on this day. More than 50,000 weddings are expected to take place this year on Dev Uthani Ekadashi,” Ravi Jindal, president of the All India Tent Decorators’ Welfare Association, told PTI.
He said the voting could be affected due to the involvement of a large number of people in the wedding ceremonies, from traders to family members and relatives.
Jindal said nearly four lakh traders, including tent dealers and event managers, are engaged in the wedding industry in Rajasthan and around 10 lakh (1 million) people are directly or indirectly involved in it, including catering service providers, florists, band parties, choreographers and others.
He said many “baraat” or wedding parties travel to different districts or states for wedding-related functions and the labourers also move from place to place, depending on their work.
“In such a situation, a few lakh people will be directly or indirectly busy on the day of polling. Many may not be able to cast their votes due to being engaged in work or not being present at their polling booths on the day of voting,” Jindal said.
Event manager Manish Kumar said, “On Dev Uthani Ekadashi, people go to other cities and districts as part of wedding parties. Similarly, caterers, electricians, florists, band parties and all others engaged in wedding-related work remain busy throughout the day and many of them may skip voting due to this.”
He said the wedding venues are already booked and full-scale wedding ceremonies will be held on November 23.
More than 5.27 crore (52.7 million) voters, including 2.75 crore (27.5 million) male and 2.51 crore (25.1 million) female voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise in this election, according to the final voter list.
About 22 lakh (2.2 million) voters aged between 18 and 19 years will cast their votes for the first time.
(With PTI inputs)
