LOW TURNOUT IN THE IT HUB OF BANGALORE LOWERS SPIRITS
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By Kestur Vasuki
The Pioneer
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Bangalore - A dismal 45 per cent voter turnout in the IT
hub of Bangalore during the second phase of polling has
become a talking point in political circles here.
With its three major Lok Sabha constituencies of Bangalore
South, Bangalore North and Bangalore Central, the city has
around 60 lakh voters, of whom only 27 lakh exercised their
franchise. Last year's voter turnout was 50 per cent.
While hi-tech multi-media campaigns did not seem to have
worked on educated voters, even slum dwellers reportedly
turned out at the booths in fewer numbers. Vokkaligas,
Brahmins, Lingayats, Muslims, backward classes, Tamil
migrants, Telugu settlers, labourers and others did not
respond as expected. Even constituencies like Bangalore
North and Bangalore Central, which have a high
concentration of Muslim and migrant voters, registered a
low turnout.
Surprisingly, the BJP blames the Election Commission for
the poor turnout. The BJP termed the ongoing election as
the "worst and most shoddily conducted" and raised
questions on the missing of names from the voters' lists.
Party vice-president Yashwant Sinha criticised the
commission's plans to involve booth-level agents to
disseminate information regarding the revision of electoral
rolls. "It is the duty of EC to ensure that all those who
have registered their names are allowed to vote," he said.
Bangalore South LS constituency, with over 20 lakh voters,
drew national attention for its novel e-campaigning. BJP's
candidate and former Union Minister HN Ananth Kumar,
seeking re-election for the fifth time in a row, used his
blog and other high-tech media for campaigning. He is
shocked and worried at the low turnout in the seat.
Congress young Turk and IT professional, the state
Youth Congress president, Krishna Byre Gowda, who also
blogged heavily during campaigning, finds no answer to this
trend either.
Prof. KE Radhakrishna of the JD(S) also felt his efforts
"had been wasted".
Capt GR Gopinath, the guru of low cost aviation and an
independent candidate who has contested from Bangalore
South, however, says it is "no disappointment".
The Congress, in its turn, blamed the BJP for the low
turnout. According to Ugrappa, the Congress spokesperson,
thousands of names had been deleted from the voters' lists.
"I blame the ruling BJP for the deletion of names," Ugrappa
said.
Dr PS Jayaramu, a political science professor in Bangalore
University, blames both corruption among politicians and
recession for the phenomenon.
"They could not draw the middle class to the booths.
Besides, in Bangalore, recession has hit the IT industry
badly and this is another reason for the low turnout,"
Jayaramu said.
Some experts blamed delimitation of constituencies for the
happening. Prof. Poornananda of the Department of Mass
Communication in Kuvempu University said delimitation, loss
of faith in the political process among the middle classes,
missing identity cards and other technical hassles were the
reasons for the poor turnout.
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