54,815 B'lore voters register on last day

 As many as 54,815 people across the City submitted the Form 6 application to register themselves as voters on Sunday, which was the last day for the exercise and to verify their names on the voters’ list.

BBMP special commissioner (elections) K R Niranjan told Deccan Herald, “While the voter registration drive has ended, BBMP’s election control room numbers (22975500, 22975583) will function till the end of the elections. During the special voter registration drive that took place on March 9, we received around 78,000 registrations; between March 10 and March 15, we received 12,000 to 15,000 registrations per day.” Niranjan said that to increase the voters’ turnout, various awareness drives will be held from March 18.

“We will rope in non-governmental organisations, anganwadis and accredited social health activists (ASHA) workers and Stree Shakti groups to spread the importance of voting through street plays, radio jingles and door-to-door campaigns.”

The BBMP’s dedicated call centre that has been functional since March 10, to answer election-related queries from public, has received more than 800 calls till date.

“The response was good as we got 100 to 120 calls per day. Since Sunday was the last day for the public to register themselves as voters and to verify their names on the voters’ list, we received more than 120 queries. Most people called us to get the contact numbers and locations of the offices of assistant revenue officers in their jurisdictions,” said Nagaraj, one of the staffers manning the centre. 

Some people also enquired about the procedure to rectify errors in their names on the electoral rolls, where to get the Form 6 application forms, election dates, among others.

“The calls were mostly from City central areas such as Chamarajpet, Shantinagar and Jayanagar,” Nagaraj said. 

The centre has received three complaints about officers violating the election code of conduct.