BENGALURU: The city fared better in Saturday’s civic elections than last time, with half of its 73 lakh voters going out and exercising their franchise.
At 11 pm, a BBMP official put the tally at 50 per cent, indicating the highest numbers for any civic election in the city in recent memory.
The turnout betters the 2010 turnout of 44 per cent by 6 per cent. Results are expected on Tuesday.
According to some exit polls, it is a close fight between the Congress and the BJP for the 198-member council, with the JD (S) coming a distant third. The CVoter-TV9 exit poll gave the Congress 90-98 seats, the BJP 83 to 91, the JD (S) nine to 17, and others, including independents, eight.
CM Siddaramaiah had led the Congress campaign, crisscrossing the city and addressing rallies in all 27 Assembly segments. For the BJP, which had held the BBMP till recently, many senior leaders had camped in the city to seek votes.
District-in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy told Express the Congress was confident of crossing the 100 mark. “Unlike in the Lok Sabha elections, voters from apartments and gated communities did not turn up this time.” He said his party was expecting at least six to seven seats in each of the eight Assembly constituencies: BTM Layout, Mahadevapura, Shantinagar, Sarvagnanagar, Pulikeshinagar, KR Puram, Chikpet and Shivajinagar. “In Bengaluru South, Hebbal and Rajarajeshwari Nagar, we may get more,” he said.
BJP Vice-President V Somanna said the higher turnout signals a tilt in favour of the BJP. Rural Development and the Panchayath Raj minister H K Patil said the only way to raise voting was to make it mandatory. “By staying away from the polling booths, many citizens have demonstrated they are not serious about better civic governance,’’ he said.
State Election Commissioner P N Sreenivasachari said the numbers were higher than last time, but not good enough. “We wanted to see more than 50 per cent. But conducting the BBMP elections and getting voters in big numbers is a Herculean task,’’ he said.