BENGALURU: This assembly polls, voters are spoiled for choice. Women voters in the city have exclusive ‘pink booths’ for them while arrangements have been made for voters — men, women and others — to avail all voter details by sending an SMS to a designated number.
About 100 pink booths have been planned across the city, distributed across constituencies for women to exclusively go and vote on May 12. The booths will be coloured pink and the staff managing these booths, too — mainly women — will be dressed in pink.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Election Commission have arranged for a helpline number (9731979899) on which, an SMS can be sent to avail voter details like the booth where a particular voter has to go and vote. BBMP commissioner, who is also the district election officer, M Maheshwara Rao, said the voter has to type “KAEPIC and the EPIC number” and send to the helpline number to obtain details.
Rao said 99% of all voters in the city were given Electoral Photo ID Cards (EPIC) along with photo-authenticated voting slips in case their name was found missing in the electoral rolls. To increase the voter participation in the city, which has always recorded a low voter turnout, the election authorities have also planned a candle march by various bodies such as the NCC, CRPF, State Police Forces to encourage the city voters to come out in large numbers to vote.
“This time, our aim is to have maximum voter turnout, and all facilities have been put in place to ensure a smooth voting process. Be it voting facilities, security arrangements, healthcare, voter registrations, we have made sure that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is abided by,” said Rao.
The BBMP and the Election Commission have provided facilities for physically challenged voters like magnifying glasses, wheelchairs, voting slips, etc, to make it easy for them. Mobile squads, state and Central forces are also to be kept on hold at all times of the day to maintain law and order while voting takes place this Saturday. Stern action would be taken against miscreants aiming to disrupt the smooth process of voting.
Cashless health facilities would also be provided in case of medical emergencies. The state assembly shall also witness the use of state-of-the-art Mark-3 EVM VVPAT voting machines for the first time in the election scenario in the country, these would use paper audit trial for verification purposes once the voters cast their vote.
Poll summary
No. of Voters - 87.9 lakh
Voters up by: 7,56,000
No. of Constituencies - 27 ( Jayanagar constituency excluded due to demise of its MLA, elections to be held on a later date)
No. of contesting candidates - 431
No. of polling stations - 8649
No. of administrative personnel deployed - 50,000
No. of security forces - 7,776
Paramilitary personnel - 4500
No. of licensed arms procured by the forces - 8,096
Personnel appointed for overlooking counting purposes - 1,400
Amount of cash seized - `29 crore
Cases of alcohol seizures - 1,645
Common items seized - Sewing machines, T-shirts, nickers, pressure cookers, tawas, sarees, shawls and vehicles.