Polling peaceful, marred by glitches

Barring a few incidents of clashes at Varuna, polling was otherwise peaceful at other five constituencies in rural Mysore.

Varuna that had hogged the limelight ahead of the elections for the reported skirmishes involving the supporters of Congress candidate and Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and political novice and KJP nominee Ka Pu Siddalingaswamy, was the cynosure of all eyes on the day of electioneering too.

The scene was however dramatically different in other constituencies of rural Mysore -- T Narsipura, Nanjangud, H D Kote, Hunsur and K R Nagar, which witnessed the polling process at a sedate pace. Election at Periyapatna has been postponed to May 28.

Mixed turnout

There was an eerie silence at Varuna village where two booths -- 41 and 42 had been set up at government higher primary school. There was a mixed voter turnout in the initial hours.

At 10 am, around 301 of the total 860 voters had participated in the exercise at booth 41; while at booth 42 out of 841 voters only 45 voters had cast their. The trend was similar at Siddaramanahundi, the native of Siddaramaiah.

At booth 79, only 203 voters had turned up against the total 1,064 voters, while booth 80 saw only 210 voters casting their vote against the total 802 votes. 

By 1.10 pm, Karya village, the native of Siddalingaswamy had registered over 50 per cent voter turn out. At booth number 230, 530 voters out of 824 had cast their votes; at booth 231, 409 voters (of 709) had shown up; while at booth 232, around 355 voters (of 593) had cast their votes.

Missing names

Despite extensive efforts by the Election Commission and the district administration, the perennial problem related to voters list continued to affect polling in the district.
While some people had to return as their names did not figure in the list, a few were awed at the presence of names of their dead relatives in the list.

Presence of the names of voters, who were no longer residents of a particular region also added to errors.

In Kolagala of H D Kote taluk, three members from the same family, who turned up to vote at booth number 82 were disappointed as their names did not figure in the list. Thimmamma, Chikkanayaka and Chikkamma, residents of Nooralakuppe, went to the polling booth with Aadhaar cards as identity proof. “We are living in the village for the past eight years and have voted in the last elections. We do not understand how our names did not appear in the list,” Thimmamma said.

Faulty EVMs

In booth number 78 at Hommaragalli in H D Kote taluk, polling was delayed by 50 minutes due to a faulty electronic voting machine (EVM). Officials tried in vain to ascertain the defect in the machine. Polling began at 7.50 am after an official from a nearby booth assisted the staff in operating the EVM.

EVM complaints were also reported in D Salundi village of Mysore taluk, which was soon rectified.

Apathetic shepherd

Nagaraj, a resident of Tumkur district, was in the district with a herd of sheep and was seen with the animals near Hommaragalli of H D Kote taluk. When questioned if he had exercised his franchise, he responded that it was not possible for him to go back to his village to cast his vote. “Who will herd my sheep, if I go off to vote?” he questioned.

Voting

Though several polling booths in Chamundeshwari, H D Kote and Hunsur constituencies witnessed good percentage of voting in the morning, searing heat during noontime saw people — who had not yet cast their votes — in the comforts of their homes.

Devegowda skips queue

G T Devegowda, JD(S) candidate from Chamundeshwari constituency, arrived with a considerable fanfare to cast his votes in Karigowdana School in Hunsur.

Devegowda, who posed for TV channels in the queue, soon skipped it and entered the polling booth to cast his vote.

When questioned, why he was not following the queue, he said he had the permission of the people to cast his vote before them.