With few days left for the 2014 to be over, but the year would be remembered in annals of Indian history as the year of elections which gave record voter turnout by bringing a total political turnaround from Coalition Government to absolute majority single party rule in the centre during the Lok Sabha elections at national level and state Assembly elections in the states. Majority of the Congress ruled states saw change in new political combination emerging with some unknown faces and people hardly having any political lineage emerging as winners to form government in their respective states. Despite the fact that Jammu and Kashmir which had five phase elections saw two major infiltration bids in Arnia in Jammu Division and Uri in Kashmir Division claiming highest number of casualties in terms of human lives yet the State witnessed 66 per cent overall polling which is the highest in the last two-and-a-half decades and Bani in Jammu province recording highest voter turnout with 80 per cent which in itself is a record. On the other hand another state Jharkhand which too underwent the five-phase electioneering got the credit giving the highest of 66.03 per cent aggregate poll percentage as the best ever witnessed in any election in the state. The fifth and final phase on Saturday saw 70 per cent-plus turnouts, with J and K recording 76 per cent polling and Jharkhand, 71 per cent. While the turnout at the last Assembly poll in Jharkhand in 2009 was 56.96 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 61.16 per cent polling in the 2008 State polls. The turnout for this assembly election has surpassed the figure for this year’s Lok Sabha poll, when 49.72 per cent of electorate in J and K and 63.82 per cent in Jharkhand stepped out to vote. The highest turnout in J and K, it be recalled, was recorded during the 1987 Assembly polls, at a whopping 74.88 per cent. This was slightly higher than the 1983 polling figure of 73.24 per cent. During the Lok Sabha poll this year, J and K recorded a 49.72 per cent turnout, up from 39.70 per cent clocked in 2009 and 35.2 per cent in 2004. In Jharkhand too, the latest Assembly poll saw a record turnout. The overall 66.03 per cent polling is even higher than the 63.82 per cent turnout registered in the April-May parliamentary poll this year. The voting percentage in the two Assembly polls held in Jharkhand so far, in comparison, was 57.03 per cent in 2005 and 56.96 per cent in 2009. Thus the year 2014 can be termed as an eventful one for the political destiny of the two states which have seen militancy and Maoist Naxalism in its worst form coming to an end and peace and tranquility stepping in.
