BENGALURU: Party workers and volunteers were seen distributing lemon rice and biryani packets near polling stations across the city on Saturday.
At Nayandahalli, some were seen distributing lemon rice and biryani packets to the voters, who were coming to vote. This created moments of tension for some time.
At Hemmigepura and other places, voters were brought in vans and were fed tasty food. At Kathriguppe, Hemmigepura, Dodda Bidrakallu and other places, party leaders not only fed the voters, but the representatives of their parties too.
Unfortunately, however, police personnel and electoral officers deployed at booths did not get food at the right time. Some of the police personnel had to make do with the food being distributed by political party representatives. Some policemen were seen buying fruits from nearby places to keep the hunger pangs at bay.
Hilal Restaurant on Broadway Road, which is known for its non-vegetarian fare, and Adiga’s at RT Nagar did brisk business through the day as food was being parcelled out of here for party workers and others.
Voter Smudges EVM With Ink
Tension prevailed for about 10 minutes at booth number 12 in Adarsha Vidyalaya on 16th Cross, 1st Block, R T Nagar, where voting for J C Nagar (Ward no. 46) was in progress. A voter who did not know how to sign was given ink to put his thumb impression on the voters’ register. “While pressing his preferred choice on the EVM, he used the finger smudged with ink, staining the button he had pressed,” a polling officer said. This was unnoticed until a voter pointed it out and complained that the mark on the EVM seemed to prompt others to vote for that particular candidate. Voting was temporarily stopped and the stain was removed with spirit.
Polling Officer Sent SMS Updates
A polling officer at R T Nagar was all praise for the new reporting system initiated in this BBMP polls. One officer at each booth was asked to send updates to an Election Commission official every two hours. “This is pretty easy for us rather than an official checking in regularly and questioning us about the polling figures,” he said. Text messages were to be dispatched at 9 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 5 pm. For instance, mock polling begins and the number of polling agents on attendance was sent as ‘MP’ followed by a numerical figure. PC was to be sent to mean ‘poll concluded’.