BENGALURU: Rain could wreak havoc on the city’s expectations of a high voter turnout on Saturday for the state assembly elections. Bengaluru, which traditionally has a low voter turnout, saw only half of its registered voters coming out to vote in the 2013 assembly elections. Heavy rains on Friday evening resulted in flooding in many areas of the city and with rains expected on Saturday as well, there is likely to be a drop in voter numbers towards late afternoon and evening.
The rainfall that began around 5.45 pm continued till 7 pm across the city resulting in waterlogging on many roads and streets. Fallen trees and branches were a common sight in most of the wards and the BBMP Control Room was flooded with complaints. Tree falls were reported from Hosakerehalli, Girinagar, Nagarbhavi, Maruthinagar, Srinagar, Ramamurthynagar and JP Nagar areas. Waterlogging of roads was witnessed near Silk Board, Gopalan Mall on Old Madras Road and Indiranagar.
Traffic also moved at a snail’s pace following the rain in certain areas in and around Koramangala. Cabs were unavailable for quite sometime. Hailstones were reported at Horamavu.A scientist at Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) Sunil M Gavaskar said a trough persisting above Karnataka over past one week was causing regular rains. “More rain is expected in several parts of the state in coming days.”
The KSNDMC website recorded rainfall in the range of 0 mm to 72. 5 mm in Bengaluru Urban district, with an average total rain of 14.21 mm. As per the forecast by India Meteorological Department, rain would occur towards evening or night hours until Tuesday.