Take inspiration from 103-year-old Mahadeva Mahalinga Mali, CEC urges Karnataka voters

With Karnataka going to polls on Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has called upon the state’s electorate, particularly the young and the urban voters, to take inspiration from 103-year-old Mahadeva Mahalinga Mali and take part in the festival of democracy by exercising their franchise.

Mali had recently cast his vote from his home at Chikkodi in Belagavi. Kumar had called up Mali and thanked him for participating in the state assembly elections.

The Chief Election Commissioner on Tuesday urged the young and the urban electors in the Information Technology capital of the country to take inspiration from Mali and other elderly voters and to participate actively in the festival of democracy, defeating the prevalent trend of urban apathy in the state.

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The EC deliberately scheduled the polling for the assembly elections in Karnataka on a Wednesday (May 10) so that the reluctant urban voters could not take advantage of the voting-day holiday by clubbing it with weekend breaks and going out on a tour instead of turning up to exercise their franchise.

Urban apathy towards voting is one of the major challenges the EC has identified in Karnataka. The overall turnout in the state assembly polls went up from 71.83 per cent in 2013 to 72.44 per cent in 2018. It, however, went down from 55.04 per cent to 51.98 per cent in BBMP (South), from 56.58 per cent to 53.47 per cent in BBMP (North), from 57.71 per cent to 55.18 per cent in BBMP (Central) and from 62.03 per cent to 57 per cent in Bengaluru Urban, which together has 28 assembly constituencies with 88 per cent of the total 8615 polling stations located in urban areas.

Kumar on Tuesday appealed to over 5.3 crore electors, especially the 11.71 lakh first-time electors, in the state to participate enthusiastically in the polling in the 224 assembly constituencies in the state.

He thanked over 76,000 senior citizens (aged over 80) and 18,800 differently-abled people in the state, who cast votes using the home voting facility provided by the EC.

There are over 5.3 crore registered electors in the state with almost equal male ( ~ 2.66 crore) and female electors (~ 2.63 crore). Over 5.71 lakh differently-abled electors, 12.15 lakh 80+ senior citizens and 16,000+ centenarian voters are registered in the state, the EC stated on Tuesday.

The Chief Electoral Officer and the District Election Officer have been instructed to provide all facilitation will be provided across more than 58000 polling booths set up across 224 assembly constituencies, said the CEC.

Specifically, he said, 996 booths will be managed by women, 239 booths by the differently abled people and 286 by the youths while 737 will be theme based and ethnic polling stations. Basic facilities like drinking water, toilets, ramps, wheelchair, electricity, volunteers, shades, help desks and parking facilities have been provided at all the polling stations, added the CEC.