The good turnout in the elections to the Legislative Council from South Graduates’ Xonstituency held on Monday has been attributed to the preparation of a fresh voters’ list.
The turnout of almost 70% recorded during Monday’s polling surpassed by a long margin the poll percentage of 43.8% recorded during the previous elections in the constituency held in June 2016.
The South Graduates’ Constituency spread across Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and Chamarajanagar districts saw long queues outside several polling stations, where the graduates waited for their turns to cast votes.
BJP’s spokesperson M.A. Mohan attributed the sharp rise in the voter turnout to the fresh enrolment carried out ahead of the elections this time unlike the previous elections when the earlier list was carried forward. “During this election, the earlier list was scrapped and fresh enrolment was carried out. This weeded out the names of voters, who had registered six years ago and had moved away from the constituency, bringing down drastically the number of no shows,” he said.
Concurring with Mr. Mohan was Congress spokesperson M.A. Lakshmana, who said the freshly enrolled graduates showed more interest in the voting process.
Mr. Mohan also pointed out the fresh list comprised a substantial number of first-time voters as well as young voters under the age of 40, who had showed a lot of enthusiasm to participate in the polling process. The run-up to the elections saw aspiring candidates enrol graduates to the voters’ list to build their support base.
With mainstream political parties taking the elections seriously and charting out a hectic campaign schedule involving their respective leaders, the awareness about the elections had also reached a high.
While a battery of Ministers – both from the State and Centre – campaigned in the constituency for the BJP, Congress leaders including former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and JD(S) leader including former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy too campaigned in different parts of the constituency in the run up to the elections.
Mr. Mohan claimed that the BJP had deployed 5,000 party workers across the constituency, assigning upto 25 voters to each of them. “Each party worker had to keep in touch with atleast 25 voters,” he said. Besides, the party used all forms of media – electronic, print and social media – to reach out to the voters.
Mr. Lakshmana claimed that one more reason for increased voter turnout was disillusionment of the people with the ruling dispensation. The voter turnout has been good not only in South Graduates’ Constituency, but also in the other three constituencies that went to polls on Monday.
JD(S) leader Mallesh added that the candidates contesting the polls were very active, which in turn helped bring a large number of voters to the polling booths.
