Karnataka Elections 2023: Low Voter Turnouts In Bengaluru This Election

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After numerous high-voltage campaigns, on 10 May, Legislative Assembly elections were held in Karnataka to elect all 224 members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. With 2,615 candidates participating, voters of Karnataka chose to elect their representatives and the next government that will rule in the state. And, 3 days later on 13 May, the results will be declared.

According to a report, the state has a total of 5,31,33,054 eligible voters who can cast their votes at 58,545 polling stations across the state. Among the voters - 2,67,28,053 are male, 2,64,00,074 female and 4,927 others.

While Karnataka's capital Bengaluru is known for being cosmopolitan and reports related to innovation, and development make headlines, the reality is way different when it comes to voter turnouts.

The low polling percentage in Bengaluru during elections is nothing new and has continued in Assembly Polls 2023 as well, despite efforts and high civic engagement. This happened even after the Election Commission of India (ECI) ensured that the polls were held on a weekday and not a weekend so that offices can give their employees a day off so that they can cast their votes.

At the end of 10 May, Provisional polling percentages showed BBMP (Central) at 55.45 percent, BBMP (North) at 52.88 percent, BBMP (South) at 52.8 percent, and Bengaluru Urban at 56.98 percent. This is despite the fact that Karnataka recorded its best-ever polling percentage at 72.81 percent, beating 2018's turnout of 72.13 percent.

During the 2013 and 2018 assembly polls, the voter turnout in Bengaluru stood at 62 percent and 57 percent, respectively. Bengaluru's turnout was 54.1 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which was lower than the 56 percent recorded in 2014.

Further, In the last Karnataka Assembly election, which was held in 2018, out of the total of 224 seats, only 7 were won by women candidates, mention news reports. Due to the under-representation of females in politics, the policies get affected and it fails to reflect the needs and issues of women. Further, in the past 66 years, this capital city has elected only 7 women MLAs to the Vidhana Soudha or the Legislative Assembly, of which three were elected to the Mysore Legislative Assembly in 1957.

On 10 May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Infosy's NR Narayana Murthy, Philanthopist and author Sudha Murthy, and Kantara actor Rishabh Shetty were some of the early voters. After casting her vote, Sudha Murthy said that voting is a sacred part of democracy. Even CM Bommai said in a statement that 'I am 100 per cent confident that we will come back with a comfortable majority.'