BBMP polls: Gandhinagar in Bangalore sees 47% voter turnout

The by-election to elect the councillor for the Gandhinagar ward of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was held peacefully on Sunday.

The by-poll saw a turnout of just 47.15% though 16 polling booths were termed sensitive. The by-poll was held in the aftermath of the murder of corporator S Nataraj (Congress) on October 1, 2011.

A total of 11,718 votes were cast in the ward of which 6,304 are men and 5,414 women. Till 12 noon, only about 22% voting was reported. Party workers blamed those living in apartments for the low turnout.

“Those living in apartments are not coming to cast their votes. Most of them are outsiders,” they said. But there was brisk voting in the slum pockets like in Risaldar Street, Lakshmanpuri and VV Giri Colony from morning.

Political leaders and candidates were busy wooing voters in these areas till the last moment. A resident said people are fed up of casting their votes every six months.

“Though it is our right to vote, there is an election every six months. There will be no development in the ward irrespective of whoever is elected. It is just a waste of money,” he said.

During the last election, there were about 35,310 voters in the ward, but now the number has reduced to 24,901 with about 10,000 names being deleted from the voters’ list.

Many residents who came to vote were shocked to see their names missing from the list. Parties blamed each other for the deletion of names. “Last time I cast my vote, but this time my name is missing,” said Ramesh, 30.

There were instances where the names of an entire family were missing from the list though family members had voter ID cards.

Gandhinagar MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao, who was busy visiting booths in the ward on Sunday, said Murugan, who is the accused in Nataraj’s murder, was campaigning for the BJP candidate. He said the BJP is using Murugan to threaten voters to vote for it.

Parties blamed each other for inducing voters by distributing Rs2,000 to Rs3,000 per household for casting votes in their favour.

Also, mutton and chicken biryani ruled the day in the slum pockets. Parties distributed vegetable biryani, too, to woo voters.
There were elaborate security arrangements. The police were patrolling the area the whole day to prevent any untoward incident. Two DCPs, six ACPs, 50 inspectors and sub-inspectors and 300 constables were stationed at the ward.