Karnataka Polls 2018: Bloated electoral rolls, not voter apathy main reason for poor turnout in Bengaluru

M Gautham Machaiah

Bengaluru’s voting population is being ridiculed for the low voter turnout of about 50 percent as compared to the state average of 72.36 percent. Is urban apathy the only reason for poor show or is there more to it than meets the eye?

While urbanites are usually accused of being lackadaisical, studies show that the turnout in Bengaluru is not actually low but appears to be so due to the bloated voters list. Much before the elections, Citizen Matters, an online magazine focussing on civic issues, had predicted the city would record a poor turnout due to faulty electoral rolls.

“The voting percentage seems to be low in Bengaluru due to the large number of duplicate entries,” says PG Bhat, a retired naval officer and software professional who has conducted elaborate studies on the voters list.

In one constituency, Basavangudi itself Bhat has found thousands of double entries. “All that the Election Commission has to do is install a software which will identify duplicate names and photographs,” he adds.

Shree DN, a senior journalist at Citizen Matters, says the problem of duplication cannot be addressed unless the authorities conduct a door-to-door survey during enumeration. The names of people who are long dead and gone continue to remain in the voters list, while it is also common to find the same person listed twice under different spellings in the same booth. “When the base is bloated, the voting figures cannot be genuine,” she notes.

With the IT boom, Bengaluru hosts a large number of migrants both from within and outside the state, most of whom live in rented houses. Given the huge attrition rate in IT companies and the notorious traffic jams in the city, people usually shift their houses closer to their workplace while changing jobs. In such cases, they register themselves as voters in the new locality while not deleting their names from the previous constituency.

“It is not only duplication that is the culprit, says senior journalist Vijay Grover, “There is a mafia that registers people from neighbouring states as voters to help certain politicians. The roster needs a thorough clean-up.”

While duplication is a serious issue, negligence of the voter too cannot be ruled out. Over the last few years, the people of Bengaluru have developed a culture of making a quick getaway from the city during long weekends. With voting day falling on a Saturday, a large number of people were found leaving for tourist hotspots like Coorg and Chickamagaluru. “Bengalurians viewed Saturday not as voting day, but as a paid holiday,” says hotelier Suresh Kumar Yerapathi.

According to Karnataka Liberals, a popular Twitter handle, a sustained campaign by a few groups and media houses against elected representatives is responsible for the low turnout. “These groups whine throughout the year and make the people cynical.” former chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board HC Sharathchandra explains, “Cynicism is the born out of frustration that all politicians are the same.”

While the typical urban voter indifference might have contributed to the poor turnout to some extent, it is time the Election Commission gets its act together by cleaning up the electoral rolls. Until then Bengaluru’s citizens will have to bear the brickbats for no fault of theirs.

(The author is a political commentator and a senior journalist.)