If the electoral battle goes down to the wire as counting progresses on Thursday, postal ballots can be crucial in several Lok Sabha constituencies that have seen a good number of them being cast by service voters and those on election duty.
Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency received close to 7,400 postal ballots (about 0.6% of the total 11.94 lakh votes polled) by the end of Wednesday, closely followed by Chikkodi constituency, with nearly 6,900 postal ballots (about 0.5% of 12.11 lakh votes polled), and Mysuru, with close to 6,600 postal ballots (about 0.5% of the total 13.12 lakh votes polled).
In four constituencies, the number of postal ballots cast is over 4,000, and they are Bagalkot, Bengaluru South, Bengaluru North, and Kalaburagi.
Simultaneous counting
Sources in the Election Commission said postal ballots would be received till 8 a.m. on Thursday, just before the counting starts. “Counting will be started with postal ballots from 8 a.m. and then they will be counted along with votes polled in the EVMs,” sources said.
According to data released by the Election Commission, as many as 26,000 service voters, out of 43,337 registered across the State, have cast their vote. The Election Commission had used Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System to enable service voters to exercise their franchise on time. “While just about 10% registered service voters had cast their vote in the May 2018 Assembly elections, we have seen close to 60% of the service voters cast their vote during this elections,” an Election Commission official said.
In all, close to 99,000 postal ballots have been received so far from service voters and those on election duty in the 28 constituencies in the State. Shivamogga constituency has the least number of postal ballots received (1,488) followed by Kolar constituency, at 1,611.