28 per cent eligible teens enrolled as voters, claims poll panel

Mumbai: Only 28 per cent of eligible youth (aged 18 and 19 years) in the state have enrolled themselves as voters. An official of the state branch of the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that as per the projected census of 2019, there are 43 lakh youths (aged 18 and 19 years) across the state, of which, only 12 lakh have enrolled themselves as voters. This is a worrisome situation, and officials of the state branch of the ECI are planning to appeal to these youths through social media to enroll themselves as voters.

An official said that the state branch of the ECI will run a drive on social media urging the young to come out and register themselves as voters. The official Twitter handle of the chief electoral officer of the state (CEO Maharashtra) has tweeted that the youth aged 18 to 21 years should not forget their national duty to enroll themselves as voters.

When contacted, additional chief electoral officer of state Dilip Shinde said, “We have started a special drive at colleges and universities on March 2 and 3 but we don't have exact numbers as we are compiling the exact numbers of the new young voters. The process of enrollment is still underway. We are appealing the new young voters to come out and register themselves.”       

The total number of eligible voters for the Lok Sabha elections in the state is 87,330,384. The total number of voters in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was 8.07 crore.