The Hindu : Karnataka News : Election turns out to be a disappointment for many

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 21, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Election turns out to be a disappointment for many

By Alladi Jayasri

BANGALORE, APRIL 20. More than a thousand voters had to return disappointed without voting in many booths in Bangalore South parliamentary constituency today after finding their names were not on the electoral rolls, although they came with their voter identity cards.

Polling had a desultory beginning in the morning in the parliamentary constituency and though voting was to start at 7 a.m. there was at least a half-hour delay in most places. Cranking up the electronic voting machines (EVMs) was the main reason for the delay.

Angry voters who had their identity cards argued and pleaded with the polling booth officers to be allowed to vote on finding their names missing in several places, including Gandhinagar, Srirampuram, and Jagjivan Ram Nagar at Binnypet.

In Tilaknagar, the crowd of voters that protested and refused to be mollified had to be dispersed by the police who resorted to mild caning. However, no one was injured.

At one of the booths in Binnypet, the Congress and Janata Dal (S) supporters protested against the exclusion of voters' names from the rolls. In the same neighbourhood, some voters were forced to go hunting for their booths, as the booth numbers 266 and 268 could not be located at the school where they were allotted. In Nandini Layout, voters complained to the Election Commission that 90 per cent of residents had not been able to vote because their names were not to be found on any list.

The President of the State unit of the BJP, H.N. Ananth Kumar, exercising his franchise in Bangalore. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

In Basavanagudi, the polling officers told voters with identity cards who could not find their names on the list that it was not enough to possess ID cards.

Ensuring that their names were on the voters' list was equally important.

Polling was peaceful, and there were not too many serpentine queues of voters waiting a long time.

The fact that there were not too many candidates, and there was no need to pore over long sheets of paper to find the candidate of one's choice, and voting was done at the click of a button, made it as speedy and simple as voters could wish, and the line moved swiftly.

Voters' coming out after exercising their franchise seemed happy with the EVMs, as Maliha, a second time voter in Tilaknagar, said.

In Chamarajpet, which has acquired "star status" thanks to the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, choosing to contest from there, voters at many booths were delighted when their candidate from the Congress decided to pay them a visit.

He told presspersons that the achievements of the Government during the last four-and-a-half years would ensure the success of the party, and it would return to power in the State.

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