BENGALURU: Amid concerted effort of the Election Commission to educate people to cast their votes on the D-day in view of the history of the city’s low voter turnouts, use of student groups by some private college managements to favour one party or candidate has come as a shocker to many.
On Tuesday morning, a group of 12-15 students from an engineering college went from house to house in Banashankari Vth Stage, BDA Layout, Krishnappa Layout, Poorna Prajna Nagar, Chikkalasandra and other colonies to spread awareness about voting. Young girls in this group allegedly told people in these areas not only to cast their votes in favour of a party, but also to refrain from using the NOTA option. When contacted, the engineering college management denied any political affiliation.
“We have taken up awareness programmes across the city as part of our social responsibility. We have told our students to urge people to come out and vote...that’s all, nothing more.”However, this is just one of the few cases where students allegedly used the platform of awareness campaigns to influence voters.
A resident of RT Nagar told The New Indian Express that a youth group on the awareness campaign trail in their area openly asked people to cast their votes for a particular party. “Degree student groups are being used during awareness campaigns to urge people to vote for a particular candidate. Is the election commission aware about such campaigns,” said Mamata, a resident of Sadashivnagar area.
Ratnakar Joshi, a political analyst, said, “NOTA may be a useless option, but nobody can dissuade people from using this. The Election Commission should be aware of such developments.”When contacted, an official from the Election Commission said that to monitor such private groups carrying campaigns in the name of social responsibility is very tough. But action will be initiated on specific complaints, the
official added.