Young voters to be crucial in Assam polls

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Feb 19: As Assam braces for the assembly polls, young voters are set to play a crucial role in what could be one of the most bitterly fought elections ever in the State.

Political parties are thus investing much energy on social media campaign to woo this section.

A total of 1.98 crore people will be eligible to vote in the assembly elections and nearly 33 per cent of them are young voters (below 40 years of age).

According to statistics made available by the Election Commission of India, 6,76,595 new voters (2 per cent of the total electorate) have enrolled themselves in the electoral rolls this time and are in the age cohort 18-19.

The highest percentage of voters is in the age group 20-29. In this group, there are 52,50,014 which is 15.5 per cent of the total electorate in the State.

There are 51,62,855 voters (15.24 per cent) in the age group 30-39 and another 40,00,806 (11.81 per cent) in the age group 40-49.

Senior citizens account for only around 5 per cent of the electorate, while there are 7.72 per cent voters in the age group 50-59.

The number of eligible voters in Assam has risen by 3.25 per cent over last year's rolls.

Altogether 1,98,66,496 people will be eligible to exercise their franchise in the 2016 assembly elections. The number of male voters is 1,02,72,287 and female voters 95,94,209. The net increase in the number of voters over the previous electoral roll is 6,45,038. In the previous election, the number of voters was 1,92,21,458.

Margherita constituency recorded the highest increase in the number of voters at 8.2 per cent.

In the last assembly elections, of the total electorate of 1,81,88,269 voters, 1,38,09,440 (75.92 per cent) had exercised their franchise.