The poor turnout in the posh areas of the city and the general voter apathy was cause enough for several politicians to spit fire at Bangalore, and to hint that if people did not turn out to vote they had no right to criticize the ruling class.The much-awaited elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were marred by poor voter turnout, with the State Election Commission pegging the voting percentage in the city at 44.6 per cent.
Not even a single vote was polled in polling station No 10 of Benniganahalli, situated in the defence colony C V Raman Nagar.Only 161 of 1,085 voters had cast their votes till 3 pm in polling station No. 6 of Seshadripuram ward, which falls in the most elite area of the ward.
“They have no right to blame politicians when they do not vote in the very important process of democracy,” Kumaraswamy said. Krishna Byregowda, MLA from Byatarayanapura Assembly segment echoed similar sentiments. Byregowda said: “These people always demand facilities from government but are not ready to spend a few minutes to exercise their franchise. I consider the poor turnout as the failure of the educated people.” Going a step further, Transport Minister in-charge of Bangalore R Ashok scolded people for watching films and going to restaurants instead of voting and called for making voting compulsory.
“It is a shame on part of educated people. I don’t know why these people have no time even to come to polling stations to elect a right candidate.It is a pity and disappointment to see that educated people prefer to watch films instead of polling. Voting should be made compulsory,” the minister R Ashok said.
Several voters found their names missing from the voter’s list or mentioned in wrong ward numbers. Many voters were not allowed to cast their vote in spite of having valid election photo identity cards, as their names were missing. This included first time voters as well as holders of the new voters ID cards issued in 2009.
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