BBMP Chief Tushar Girinath. (Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal, EPS)
BENGALURU: To ensure high voter turnout than in previous elections on polling day in Bengaluru on May 10, Wednesday, election commission and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials are now reaching out to residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) and techies.
The officials will be reaching out to apartment complexes and commercial hubs across eight zones and IT hubs including on the Outer Ring Road, Peenya Industrial Area, textile parks and Electronics City to ensure that people do not treat Wednesday as a holiday, but come out to vote.
“I will be visiting all eight zones, and interacting with the RWAs and working professionals to create awareness. We will also be creating voters awareness forums with the support of working professionals to encourage people to come out and vote,” district election officer and BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath told TNIE.
In 2018, while Karnataka recorded a 72.44 per cent voter turnout, Bengaluru’s was around 55 per cent. In 2013, the poll percentage from Bengaluru was 52.83 per cent while that of the states was 71.83 per cent. In 2019, Bengaluru’s voter percentage was around 50 per cent.
Another senior official said: “Not sure if it’s intentional, but the decision of making poll day on Wednesday is a good move. This way, people cannot take an extended weekend and treat it like a summer vacation. We will stress this upon companies, apartment dwellers and industry bodies to ensure people come to vote.”
On the question of whether the awareness forums will encourage people to enrol, Girinath said that people have been given enough time to enrol. Our focus is now on drawing voters to booths. However, those who are coming for enrolment now are being looked at with suspicion if they have any vested interest, and a thorough verification is being done, he said.
