Lok Sabha polls 2019: What the silence of voters in western UP signifies

If the extraordinarily large turnout at the first gathbandhan rally in Deoband on April 7 is anything to go by, apathy or pre-determined choices should not be the reason for quietude

Even by the stringent standards set by former chief election commissioner T N Seshan, who many felt robbed Indian elections of the theatrics, noise, colour and commotion that essentially celebrated democracy, electioneering has been unusually quiet in rambunctious western Uttar Pradesh. Days before campaigning for the first phases closes on April 9, an occasional roadshow or a “nukkad sabha” (street-corner meet) and lately a few rallies broke the placidity.

What does the quietude signify? Apathy or pre-determined choices that make even a long and arduous trudge to a rally superfluous? Neither, as the extraordinarily large and surcharged turnout at the first