BHOPAL:
Vote
and you may get lucky. Worried by the low polling in the first two phases of Lok Sabha
, officials have announced a
lucky draw
every two hours in
Bhopal
constituency on voting day.
Those who get inked stand the chance of winning diamond rings, refrigerators, televisions and other goodies. Bhopal votes in the third phase on May 7.
Polling has been very low in MP this time, dropping by over 8.5% on average in the first two rounds.
Bhopalis have never been very gung-ho voters – in 2019, where there was a surge in voting elsewhere, the Bhopal turnout only crept up to 65.7%.
Election officials hope that the hope of a reward will draw voters out of homes this time, on a day when the mercury is expected to cross 40 degrees Celsius. “On polling day, we will hold three lucky draws at every polling booth – at 10am, 3pm and 6pm. One winner in each of these draws will win a prize. And then, a day or two after the election, we will hold a mega draw where big prizes will be distributed to the winners,” district election officer, collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh, told TOI on Monday. “The move is aimed to create awareness among voters”, he added.
There are 2,097 polling booths in Bhopal parliamentary constituency. That’s well over 6,000 prizes, not to talk of the bumper prizes.
