BENGALURU: The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Karnataka is paying special attention to increasing the polling percentage in booths that have recorded low voter turnout, especially in urban areas. The state has over 57,300 polling stations, and hearteningly, there has been an increase in voting percentage in the state over the last few years.
But constituencies falling under urban areas are laggards and have been recording a low voter turnout as compared to the state average. In the last one decade, the state polling percentage is above 70, whereas in urban areas, especially in cities like Bengaluru, it is hardly 50 per cent.
CEO Karnataka Manoj Kumar Meena told The New Indian Express that in 9,000 polling booths across the state, the polling percentage is lesser than the average of the constituencies they fall under. There are 73 such Assembly constituencies.
“We have identified such polling stations. Our people will visit those particular polling stations, interact with voters and listen to their woes. If anything from outside helps increase the polling percentage, we will do it,” he said. According to him, sometimes, even reasons like keeping a place clean, better roads and other better amenities will help them increase the turnout.
In Bengaluru, a large number of voters stay in apartments, small and big. It is a challenge to reach voter slips to these people. “This could also be one of the reasons why voters might not have turned up at polling booths. This time, we are planning to reach out to them with the help of resident welfare associations or apartment associations. We want to reach 100 per cent slips to voters. We hope to get more voters,” he added.