Voters queueing up at a booth at Deepanjalinagar in Bengaluru on Friday.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
The voter turnout in the first of the two-phase Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka on Friday, which sealed the fate of 247 candidates, stood at 69.23%, marginally higher than the 68.96% recorded in 2019. Continuing the trend of urban apathy, the three constituencies in the State capital — Bengaluru North, Bengaluru Central, and Bengaluru South — recorded a turnout of 54.42%, 52.81%, and 53.15%, respectively. Mandya recorded the highest turnout at 81.48%.
The voting percentage is likely to change after final reports from all polling stations are obtained, Manoj Kumar Meena, Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka, said.
Barring a few incidents — such as at Indiganatta polling station in Chamarajanagar constituency where there was a clash following poll boycott and another at Vaddarapalya in Hassan where Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress supporters clashed — polling was peaceful for the most part. At Indiganatta, enraged by the taluk administration’s attempts to persuade them to vote, the villagers pelted stones and barged into the polling booth, damaging EVMs and polling materials. An FIR was registered and a decision on whether a repoll was required would be taken by the Election Commission of India, said Mr. Meena.
Mandya maintains record
In terms of turnout, Mandya was followed by Kolar (78.07%), Tumakuru (77.7%), Hassan (77.51%), Dakshina Kannada (77.43%), and Chickballapur (76.82%). While seven constituencies recorded a turnout of above 75%, the three constituencies of Bengaluru are the only ones to record less than 60% turnout.
Mandya, which is witnessing a mega clash between the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Congress’ Venkataramane Gowda (‘Star Chandru’), had recorded the highest turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2023 Assembly polls too. While this constituency had recorded 80.59% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it had seen a polling percentage of 84.75 in the Assembly elections last year.
Urban apathy
Bengaluru South which had recorded the lowest turnout of a little over 53% in the previous three elections (2018 Assembly, 2019 Lok Sabha, and 2023 Assembly) has maintained its polling percentage at 53.15%. However, Bengaluru Central has seen a dip in the turnout from 54.32% in 2019 to 52.81% this time.
Expressing helplessness, officials said it was unfortunate that urban voters had always been less enthusiastic about voting, despite several strategies adopted to increase the turnout.
Bengaluru Rural and Mysuru
Bengaluru Rural constituency and Mysuru — where the Election Commission had taken up 100% webcasting of the polls — recorded 67.29% and 70.45% turnout, respectively.
Bengaluru Rural constituency has D.K. Suresh, brother of Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar, pitted against cardiologist C.N. Manjunath contesting on the BJP ticket. In the Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency, the battle is between the scion of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family Yaduveer Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, who is the BJP candidate, and M. Lakshman of the Congress.