Voter enrolment drive elicits good response in Bangalore

The special voter enrolment camps organised by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) at 7,712 polling stations across the City on Sunday saw a huge turnout of citizens eager to include their names in the voters’ list.

“The camp, particularly aimed at reaching women and youth, elicited good response. Each station had a booth-level officer to help people. Citizens can register their names till March 16,”  K R Niranjan, BBMP Special Commissioner (Election), told Deccan Herald.

He said Bangalore had 72.62 lakh registered voters at present.

A dedicated call centre functioning from the BBMP head office will cater to election-related matters and address the grievances pertaining to names and addresses in the voters’ list.

Citizens can also call the centre to give information on any malpractice by candidates, Niranjan added.

A staff at the call centre said that on the first day, they received around 40-50 calls from public who enquired about election-related matters. Applications for inclusion of names and rectification of errors in voters’ list were received at the camp.

Somashekhar J, Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) for Begur, Bangalore South Assembly constituency, said that as many as 3,000 forms (for inclusion of names in voters’ list) had been issued in the last one week and 1,022 completed applications were received on Sunday. He said that no voter had approached them seeking deletion of name from the electoral roll.

Prasanna Kumar, Electoral Registration Officer for Shivajinagar Assembly segment of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, said a total of 1,227 people submitted applications seeking inclusion of their names in the voters’ list. “As many as 215 were aged 18-19 years,” he said.

The BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana, who is also the district election officer, held a meeting on Saturday with the district heads of the major political parties and the special commissioner of the civic agency. He appealed to the participants to organise programmes across the City for encouraging voter enrolment and ensuring 100 per cent voting this time.

To register as a voter, log on to http://voterreg.kar.nic.in/. Citizens can also visit BangaloreOne Centres, nearest BBMP ward offices and tax collection centres to enrol in the voter list.