In tech-hub Bengaluru, poll body finds urban apathy to be a major challenge

At the Karnataka Assembly elections, one of the biggest challenges for the Election Commission is battling urban apathy. While announcing the poll schedule for Karnataka, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said voter turnout in urban areas is witnessing a consistent decline and highlighted the need to encourage professionals working in the information technology space to partake in the electoral process. 

The Chief Election Commissioner said four districts in Bengaluru saw the lowest voter turnouts in the state in 2013 and 2018. Nearly 88% of polling stations in the four districts of Bengaluru --  BBMP (South), BBMP (North), BBMP (Central) and Bangalore Urban. 

“Urban Apathy is a cause of concern. These four districts in India’s IT Hub had the lowest voter turnout in 2013 and 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, much less than the state average,” chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said. 

The top election commission official also highlighted the low voter turnout trend in urban areas in the 2019 general elections and in recently held assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. He also underlined the need for  intervention in the root-cause of the problem.  

He said that there is an urgency to create awareness through setting up electoral literacy clubs in schools and colleges and voter awareness forums in private organisations and resident welfare associations. 

Notably, to ensure higher turnout of urban voters in the Karnataka assembly elections, he also mentioned that voting has been scheduled on Wednesday, May 10 and not on Monday and Friday as many urban people use these days as their extended weekends. With the voting day  on May 10, the counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on May 13.

The election commission is also preparing to make over 40,000 young voters eligible to vote in Karnataka assembly elections. This is only for those who have turned 18 years of age between January 2 and April 1, 2023. According to the EC, the state also has over 9 lakh first-time voters between the age of 18 and 19.