BALLARI: For the undivided Ballari Schedule Tribe (ST) reserved Lok Sabha constituency, women will be the deciding factor.
Of the total electorate of 18,77,751 in the constituency, women voters are 9,51,522 and men voters 9,25,961. The constituency also has 53,169 first-time and 24,841 specially abled voters. Though the numbers are high, there is not a single woman MLA from the eight Assembly constituencies in this Lok Sabha segment.
Both Congress candidate E Tukaram and BJP’s B Sriramulu are trying to woo women voters. Sriramulu has been campaigning on the central government programmes aimed at women, like Ujjwal, Beti Bachao Beti Padao and women empowerment.
At the same time, Tukaram is confident that the five guarantees introduced by the state government, including Gruha Laksmi, Shakti and Gruha Jyoti, will work in his favour.
A political analyst, Shridhar Reddy, said that the constituency has around 26,000 more women voters as compared to men voters and they will have a big say in who will win the polls.