BENGALURU : Soon after polling for 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state on Friday, debates over the likely outcomes based on the urban-rural voting pattern has begun. The most talked about is Bengaluru Rural, where the stakes are high. Whether the low voter turnout in urban spaces benefit Congress or BJP is also the talking point.
In the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituencies, Assembly segments of Bengaluru South and RR Nagar registered 56.08%and 56.06% turnout, in semiurban Anekal it was 60.69%, in Kanakapura 84.77%, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s home constituency Channapatna registered 84.61%, Magadi 84.96%, Ramanagara 84.56% and Kunigal 85.26%. But the average for the entire constituency is 68.30%. Women at 69.03% fared better than men at 67.60%. Both BJP and Congress threw accusations at each other about distribution of big inducements to voters.
On the polling trend and low voter turnout in some areas, Shivakumar said, “I would like to thank all the voters for peaceful polling. Our (Congress) tally will reach double digits in the first phase itself.”
Wins in Bengaluru
Congress leaders felt that their candidate DK Suresh has an edge over BJP’s Dr CN Manjunath. But BJP-JDS leaders claimed that the good polling percentage in Assembly constituencies that have big rural voters is because the alliance has worked.
“The difference in polling percentage in rural and urban spaces will have no bearing on the results. We will win eight seats out of 14, including Bengaluru, because of the five guarantees and women voters tilted in our favour,” claimed Ramesh Babu, KPCC media and communication chief.
Ramesh Babu blamed the ECI for low polling percentage as it failed to keep the electoral list in Bengaluru in good health with some names being deleted in areas like Gandhinagar.
Rajajinagar BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar attributed the low voting percentage in his constituency to some voters having their right to vote in multiple places.”When a voter was requested to vote, he replied that his name is in three different constituencies and will vote in Bengaluru Rural as he liked the candidate, Dr CN Manjunath,” he said.
Rajajinagar registered 51.1% polling. Suresh Kumar claimed that PC Mohan, the BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bengaluru Central, will get over a 40,000-vote lead from Rajajinagar. Congress leaders, however, are hoping for a photo finish as its candidate Mansoor Ali Khan campaigned aggressively.
Similar predictions have been made in Bengaluru North (54.45% polling), where Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje is contesting against former RS member Prof MV Rajeev Gowda and Bengaluru South (53.17%), where BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejasvi Surya faces a stiff challenge from Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya Reddy.