A strikingly poor turnout of Hindi-speaking voters in three of the seven seats Jorasanko, Maniktala and Shyampukur in Calcutta on Thursday raised an alarm in the state BJP, said a senior office-bearer of the party.
Hindi-speaking population is considered the traditional vote bank of the BJP which had been claiming it would sweep most seats in Calcutta.
According to the Election Commission of India, the seven seats recorded 57.53 per cent turnout till 5pm.
“We weren’t prepared for this. The fear of contracting the novel coronavirus has prevented these people from coming out to vote. The party depends massively on the Marwari and Bihari communities in these areas. We were hopeful of bagging a chunk of the votes of these communities, but their turnout has been unexpectedly low,” a BJP worker in the Jorasanko constituency and a Marwari himself said.