Mumbai: They are exhausted, indifferent and deeply cynical.Despite raucous campaigns and social media messages to go out and vote , Mumbaikars, by and large, have been apathetic when it comes to civic elections. The city's average voter turnout for the 2012 municipal elections was 45%, and even lower in upmarket areas such as Colaba, Walkeshwar Road, Bandra and Andheri (West).The writer Arundhati Roy famously said that India's elite have seceded to outer space. Mumbai's lumpen elite are still orbiting far away from local politics and are more likely to know the names of US presidential candidates rather than their ward corporators.Most highrise residents do not bother to visit polling booths while the invisible masses from the city's chawls and slums diligently show up.Even the chunk of the elite and upper-middle-class that trickles into polling booths for Lok Sabha elections stays away from civic polls, which it considers "a waste"."People in upscale localities have stopped trusting the BMC and believe no worthwhile civic reforms will ever happen. They have given up," said Rajeev Jain, a platoon commander with the home guards, assisting the city police during Tuesday's elections."They do not need a corporator in their lives," he said.For the city's middle-class, professor Sudha Mohan of the Mumbai University's department of civics and politics said, it is "business as usual"."They are happy to wriggle out services with their social and political connections. Their stake in civic governance is very low." The trust and hope is in the slums where communities lack basic services. These are factors which bind these residents with their local political benefactor. "It's the politics of reciprocity and that is how the electoral mathematics works," she added.Pedder Road resident Veena Singhal (75) said civic conditions over the decades have deteriorated in the country's financial capital."We get tired and there is no energy left," said Singhal, a civic activist who led the protest against the government's plan to build a flyover at Pedder Road. "The BMC is inactive and lethargic. Mumbai corporators have lost all credibility. No one believes them anymore."Her words are echoed by the educated elite across the board. "I would if vote if I felt that even one of the parties had the city's best interests at heart. Everything seems to be done in a haphazard manner. They make a road, break it five days later, and then patch it together shabbily," says Anisha Seth. She refers to the road outside her home at Mount Mary, Bandra, and does not plan to vote.South Mumbai resident Amitabh Nanda, who chose to take advantage of the holiday and leave the city, announced on social media, "Why would I stay if, in lieu of a campaign, party functionaries create (additional) chaos and crowd the streets in a bizarre premature celebration, looking like the Josey Wales gang just rode into town, breaking all traffic rules on their three-abreast bike armadas flying oversized flags on lances that are just waiting to come loose and kill the passing common man."Former municipal commissioner Sharad Kale said there is a growing perception that no matter whom you vote for, the results will be still the same. "Some friends say they will use the NOTA to register their protest vote because of the huge degree of disaffection. He warned that those who don't vote are allowing others who do to decide the outcome."The BMC elections cater to the poor," says a Mumbai businesswoman. "As kids we were told, 'If you don't behave yourself, you will be sent to a municipal school'."She is going to trudge to her voting booth but says, "I know that whoever I vote for will turn out to be a crook."Meanwhile, an upmarket food store chain sent this message to all his clients: "Casting your vote is as important as eating fresh every day... And if you're looking for one more reason, we won't open till 1pm tomorrow." But it is likely that most will sleep in before heading out to pick up their broccoli and baguettes.

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