CEC Rajiv Kumar appeals to Karnataka voters to participate in polling 'enthusiastically'

NEW DELHI: Chief Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday made an appeal to the 5.3 crore registered electors in Karnataka, particularly the 11.7 lakh first-time voters, to participate enthusiastically in the polling scheduled for Wednesday.
Kumar, in his election-eve appeal, urged the young and urban electors of the state, which is widely known as IT capital of the country, to take inspiration from the 103-year old voter Mahadeva Mahalinga Mali, who recently cast his vote from his home in Chikkodi, Belagavi, and defeat the prevalent trend of urban apathy that had pulled down the turnout in many constituencies during past elections.
Both the Prime Minister and the CEC had hailed Mali for inspiring voters with his commitment towards strengthening democracy, when he recently cast his vote from home.
On Tuesday, Kumar also thanked the over 76,000 senior citizens above 80 years of age and 18,800 persons with disabilities (PwDs) who have cast their vote using the home voting facility provided by the EC.
Karnataka has over 5.3 crore registered electors, of which 2.66 crore are male and 2.63 crore, female. The state's electorate also comprises 5.7 lakh PwDs, 12.1 lakh 80-plus voters and more than 16,000 centenarian voters.
Kumar said the chief electoral officer of Karnataka as well as the district election officers had been instructed to facilitate voters across all its 58,000-plus polling booths. These include 996 booths managed by women, 239 by PwDs and 286 by young officers and staff; and 737 theme-based and ethnic polling stations. All polling stations will have basic facilities like drinking water, toilets, ramps, wheelchair, electricity, volunteers, shades, helpdesks and parking facilities.