As many as 4.61 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the April 17 Lok Sabha elections in the state. With this the voter-population ratio stands at 71.98 per cent, an increase of 2.7 per cent compared to last year’s Assembly polls.
Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha on Tuesday told reporters that according to the revised data (March 26, 2014), there are 2.35 crore male voters, 2.26 crore female voters and 3,957 voters who come under the Others category. Also, there are 40,729 service voters who will cast their vote through postal ballot.
“It was 69.21 per cent voters to population ratio during the 2013 Assembly polls and it has increased by 2.7 per cent,” he said adding this increase is a ‘significant increase.’ Similarly, during the 2013 Assembly polls, the female to male ratio which was 958 (per 1,000 male voters) which has now increased to 960 (an increase of two per cent.) While Bangalore North is the biggest constituency with 23,99,994 voters, Udupi-Chikmagalur is the smallest constituency with 13,86,515 voters.
Jha also said Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) has been issued to 99 per cent of the voters and that the commission will try to cover all the voters. “However, we are making provision to issue voter slips five days before the election. Voter slip will have name of the voter along with photo and the name of the polling station. With this, one can vote even without EPIC or with EPICs having any error,” he said.
‘Tibetans Cannot Vote’
Jha said Tibetan who were born between 1951 and 1987 and who have registered their names in voters’ list could have voted. “But none of them have registered. Hence no Tibetan will be allowed to vote this time,” he added.
Jha also said 11 Lok Sabha constituencies will have an extra Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). The constituencies include Bidar, Koppal, Haveri, Dharwad, Davangere, Tumkur, Mandya, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikballapur and Kolar. While Bangalore Central has the highest number of candidates contesting, Gulbarga has minimum of eight candidates.
“This time, we need to make provision for None of The Above (NOTA) option. Wherever there are more than 15 candidates contesting the polls, we will make provisions for an extra EVM,” he said.
Constituency-wise break-up
Constituency Male Female Others
Chikkodi 7,41,007 6,94,440 63
Belgaum 8,03,183 7,71,791 151
Bagalkot 7,91,118 7,74,552 107
Bijapur 8,46,953 7,74,440 177
Gulbarga 8, 78,083 8,43,358 225
Raichur 8,35,791 8,25,261 310
Bidar 8,38,383 7,61,425 70
Koppal 7,70,099 7,64,632 95
Bellary 7,50,587 7,36,921 153
Haveri 8,06,339 7,51,399 77
Dharwad 8,07,973 7,69,083 88
Uttara Kannada 7,39,529 7,06,736 30
Davangere 7,71,821 7,50,411 106
Shimoga 7,78,037 7,83,169 82
Udupi-Chikmagalur 6,78,710 7,07,742 63
Hassan 7,88,309 7,71,258 88
Dakshina Kannada 7,73,600 7,90,423 68
Chitradurga 8,44,598 8,16,227 91
Tumkur 7,64,260 7,53,766 118
Mandya 8,38,603 8,29,993 89
Mysore 8,66,391 8, 54,665 141
Chamarajnagar 7,89,170 766307 61
Bangalore Rural 11,35,666 10,54,232 261
Bangalore North 12, 59,145 11,40, 484 365
Bangalore Central 10,09,822 9,20,454 299
Bangalore South 10,10,584 9,47,604 320
Chikballapur 8,43,530 8,14, 388 120
Kolar 7,53,783 7, 36,923 139
TOTAL : 4,61,30,485
(including 40,729 postal voters)
Seizure
■ Rs 23.5 lakh was seized from across the state on Tuesday . As on date, Rs 3.08 crore has been seized.
■ 4,260 litres of liquor in Bellary and 43 litres in Dakshina Kannada have been seized. As on date, 39,478 litres worth Rs 1.58 crore have been seized.
■ 8,030 kg of jaggery was seized in Dharwad, 2,000 sarees in Belgaum and 2,022 sarees in Chikaballapur, all together worth Rs 1.04 crore.