Over 4,400 senior citizens, disabled vote from home in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A total of 4,459 Bengaluru residents cast their votes from home on Saturday, marking the first of five days during which this exercise will continue.

Voting was underway in all the Lok Sabha constituencies of Bangalore North, Central, and South under BBMP limits and the Bengaluru Urban area for senior citizens aged 85 years and above and persons with disabilities (PwD). 

Officials visited voters in all areas except Padmanabhanagar to facilitate their participation in the voting process. This vote-from-home exercise will continue through April 18.

Of the total of 1,13,108 senior citizens above 85 years of age in the city, only 7,556 registered to vote from home. Similarly, of the identified 30,693 people with disabilities, only 302 registered for the vote from home option. This brings the total number of registered home voters to 7,858.

In the BBMP Central zone, 1,337 votes were cast, followed by BBMP South zone, where 1,313 votes were cast. Nine hundred and eighty five votes were cast in the BBMP North zone, and the Bangalore Urban region, which includes Mahadevapura, Dasarahalli, and Anekal, saw 824 votes being cast.

Officials also noted that, among the registered voters, 18 had deceased, 16 were absent at the time of their visit, and two refused to vote.”

This brought the percentage of votes being cast on Saturday to 56.74 per cent of the total.

Lalithamba B V, whose 87-year-old father Vishwanathaiah voted at their home in HSR Layout, said that the BBMP “proactively” worked to ensure her father could vote.  “They (officials) came home two days ago and informed us that they would come on Saturday at 10.30. They set it up within 10 minutes and explained the process to my father inside a closed room. It was over very quickly,” she said. 

Acknowledging the seamless process, an elderly resident of an apartment complex in K Narayanapura in the northern part of the city, also wished for some precaution by the officers. “They were going to take my 93-year-old mother’s vote. While they treated her with care and respect, they could have worn masks to be a little cautious,” she said.