BENGALURU: The Silicon City of India, which often prides itself for its civic activism, has been notorious for its low voter turnout. This time was no different. One of the reasons may be that the IT hubs of the city like Electronics City and Global Village Tech Park in Bangalore Rural, ITPL, Embassy Golf Links and Mahadevapura in Bangalore Central, Manyata Tech Park in Bangalore North, are home to migrant professionals.
The data from the State Election Commission indicates that the lowest polling was registered in the IT clusters coming under Bommanahalli, BTM Layout, K R Puram, C V Raman Nagar Assembly segments, whereas polling in the older parts of Bengaluru like Jayanagar, Padmanabhanagar and Chickpet in Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat was fairly high at 58 per cent . Compared to that, Bommanahalli Assembly segment, which includes Electronics City, saw polling as low as 47.03 per cent .
The techies are known to be active with their political opinions on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But it clearly did not translate into active political participation. The fact that political parties did much of their campaign through social media was obviously not good enought to persuade the younger age group to go out and vote.
The highest polling of 88 per cent was registered in Hosakote, around 40 km from Bengaluru. Part of Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha constituency. Hosakote is the hometown of BJP candidate B N Bacchegowda. The constituency has a tradition of high voter turnout, registering 88.92 per cent voting in the 2018 Assembly polls. In Chikkaballapur, which registered 76.78, Bacchegowda is pitted against Congress veteran M Veerappa Moily.Anekal Assembly segment registered only 58 per cent polling, much less than the 64.90 per cent registered in Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha seat.
Deletion of voters’ names one of the reasons for low voting in Karnataka
In all, 21 Assembly segments registered over 80 per cent polling, which is way more than the state’s average of 68.05 per cent. Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, which witnessed an emotionally charged contest between JDS candidate Nikhil Kumar and Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, lived up to the pre-election expectations by polling a high of 80.24 per cent.
Five of the eight Assembly segments polled over 80 per cent here. Melukote, known for its famous temple and Sanskrit university, polled the highest at 86.54 per cent.Three Lok Sabha constituencies that are crucial to former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s party and also the family, reported a high voter turnout. While Mandya constituency topped the state at 80.24 per cent, Gowda’s constituency Tumkur, and the family turf Hassan — from where his grandson Prajwal Revanna is attempting to make his debut into electoral politics — reported a little over 77 per cent polling.
“The presence of strong booth-level workers in rural areas is one of the factors that helped high voter turnout in the rural areas as they approach as many voters as they can on polling day. That was not the case with Bengaluru,” says political analyst Professor Kiran Gajanur. All three Lok Sabha constituencies in Bengaluru — North (54.62) , Central (54.29) and South (53.48) saw poor polling in the state. Given the city’s past record, Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy (BJP) says polling percentage in his constituency — the lowest in the state — is still better compared to the 2018 assembly elections when it was just 42per cent .
According to the MLA, deletion of voters’ names is one of the reasons for low voting. “Over 10,000 voters’ names in my constituency have been removed. Similarly, 65,000 voters’ names have been removed from BTM Layout, Basavanagudi and Padmanabhanagar Assembly constituencies. Our party will file PIL soon in the High Court questioning the deletions,’’ Reddy said.
Interestingly, Assembly constituency represented by senior netas also recorded poor turnout. BMT Layout, represented by former Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy, witnessed just 51.27per cent voting, which is lesser than the city’s average. Likewise, Minister K J George’s constituency Sarvajnanagar too scored 52.69per cent . Former minister M Krishnappa’s Vijayanagar Assembly constituency settled for 51.25per cent and Byrathi Basavaraj’s K R Puram constituency polled 51.59per cent .