BENGALURU: For all the urbane, educated and a huge brigade of young voters Bengaluru can boast of, it was a big let down on Thursday yet again. All four parliamentary constituencies recorded voter turnout which was lesser than the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, pulling down the state average drastically.
Bangalore Central, in particular, polled the lowest among all 14 seats that went to polls in Karnataka on Thursday. The high-pitched battle between BJP’s P C Mohan, Congress-JD(S) joint candidate Rizwan Arshad and Independent candidate Prakash Raj turned out to be quite a damp squib with barely 50.84% voters turning up at polling booths. The urban disconnect with the polling process continued with Bangalore Rural emerging the highest polling seat among the four with 64.09%. This was however still lower than the 2014 turnout of 66.45%.
“The performance is actually better than other metro cities like Hyderabad,” said Sanjiv Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer. Perhaps, that was the only solace.Bangalore South, which witnessed brisk voting on Thursday morning, registered a total turnout of 54.2% as compared to 55.75% in 2014.
‘Do-or-die situation for the JD(S) due to misadventures’
The intensity of the battle in these seats perhaps has led to higher polling, according to other analysts. “The increased polling percentages in Vokkaliga belts show that the battle is intense. It is a do-or-die situation for the JD(S) owing to their own misadventures,” said A Narayana, political analyst and commentator. He added that some unpopular decisions taken by the JD(S) could have contributed to the higher voter turnout and insisted that such numbers are akin to sending out a message.
The coastal seats of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi-Chikmagalur maintained their streak of high voter turnouts with 77.69% and 75.85%, respectively. While the total voter turnout in Karnataka during the 2014 Lok Sabha election was 68.1%, the first phase of polling in 14 seats this time stands at a close 67.81%. “The numbers suggest that there is no general wave, unlike in 2014. The issues are local and constituency-specific. A wave, if any, is from specific seats owing to local reasons,” Prof Pani reasoned.