Wooing voters with coconuts, wristwatches

Wednesday marked day one of the final round of elections when the electoral college of 112 Assembly constituencies voted for their preferential candidates. There was an 80 per cent turnout.

The party had made tall claims about the election process being transparent and democratic. However, it has been anything but that.

With the fight intensifying, the 18 candidates are said to have splurged large amounts of money on inducing the Electoral College, apart from devising attractive schemes like taking the voters out on a sightseeing, etc.

While a Gandhinagar Assembly candidate was seen distributing watches costing between Rs 150 and Rs 200 apiece to voters, a State committee aspirant, who has been allocated the symbol of a tender coconut, was distributing free tender coconuts to voters before and after the voting.

Delay in polling

The Election Commission of the party has bungled while creating a ballot paper for the Kanakapura Assembly constituency. Instead of 14 candidates, it listed the names of only 11 candidates, leading to confusion in the polling stations.

The error came to light after one of the voters pointed out that the name of his candidate was missing. This resulted in a delay of almost two hours and the polling was held between 10 am and 5 pm, instead of from the scheduled 8 am to 5 pm.

Ramya resurfaces

Kannada actress Ramya, who had disappeared after abruptly backing out of the race to the president’s post, resurfaced on Wednesday morning to cast her vote at the Shivajinagar polling station. The actor, said to have been in Europe the last few days, was apparently asked to return to Bangalore specifically to cast her vote in the Youth Congress poll.

Ramya told reporters that she had not contested for the State committee because she lacked experience.