Karnataka Elections: Bengaluru’s seat share in the assembly signifies political heft but voters are squandering it

The EC has been making efforts to ensure that Bengalureans conquer the lethargy witnessed in previous elections.

Will people overcome apathy and exercise their franchise in large numbers in the IT hub of Bengaluru on May 10? The Election Commission has been making efforts to ensure that Bengalureans conquer the lethargy witnessed in previous elections and turn out in large numbers to vote. NGOs are doing their bit too.

The EC has even brought the polling day to mid-week and not weekends so that voters don’t escape the city for holidaying. But the EC is keeping its fingers crossed. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has set an ambitious target of taking the Bengaluru voting percentage to 75 percent.

Paradox: Influential Region, Apathetic Voters

Unlike the voters of the rest of Karnataka, those in Bengaluru don’t come in droves to the polling stations. Alarming enough, their numbers are coming down each time the state goes to polls to choose its lawmakers. Look at these figures: in the 2008 Assembly elections, only 49.87 percent of voters exercised their voting rights in Bengaluru against 64.78 percent for the entire state. In the 2013 polls, 57.38 percent voted, against 71 percent state-wide. This dropped further to 54.73 percent in 2018, compared to the Karnataka figure of 71.91 percent.

Bengaluru voters are important as they account for nearly 20 percent of Karnataka’s 5.24 crore voters. Karnataka has 70 urban and 154 rural seats. The importance of Bengaluru can be gauged from the fact that nearly half of the urban seats that the state has are situated in the city, which has a total of 28 seats.

The delimitation exercise in 2008 increased Bengaluru’s constituencies from 16 to 28, catapulting it to an important role in determining who rules Karnataka. Like in 2018, many of the 28 seats in the nation’s IT, BT and start-ups capital may see close contests and it is here that each vote cast becomes important. Hence the need to increase voting percentage in the city.

Contrasts: Hurting City, Insulated Flats

Apartment residents are one of the key voting sections in the city. One estimate says 20 percent of the city’s population lives in apartments. Since a huge number of them are natives of other states, they are not too concerned about voting here.

EC wants to make concerted efforts to bring voters to the polling booths but it is a difficult task. Parties have “apartment cell” office bearers and have rolled out “action agenda for flats”. A town hall in this regard was held recently. It is difficult to tap apartment dwellers as generally entry inside these apartments for outsiders is barred. Realising this, the Bengaluru Apartments Federation, the apex body for the flat residents, had launched a campaign, “Every vote matters”. It is aimed at enrolling voters and is designed to create voter awareness through interactions between residents and political parties.

Although Bengaluru is known worldwide as a software powerhouse, its residents are reeling under inadequate civic infrastructure which has failed to take the ever-increasing burden of the continuous inflow of people from other states. Inadequate drinking water supply, urban transport and affordable health facilities, potholes, open drains, rising prices, especially of oil and gas, have hit people hard. Massive rains last year which resulted in flooding in most parts of Bengaluru, especially in the IT corridor, added to the city’s woes, with the poor town planning, illegal construction of layouts, apartments and corporate buildings standing exposed.

The Political Dynamics

In 2018, Congress won 15, BJP 11 and JD(S) 2 seats (the scene changed a year later as 3 from Congress and 1 from JD(S) defected to BJP, contested and won). Congress has been faring better compared to BJP in the city and (if you leave out 2019) BJP’s performance has been on the decline. The Congress bagged 10 seats in 2008, 13 in 2013 and 15 in 2018. BJP got 17 in 2008, 12 in 2013 and 11 in 2018.

There are no high-profile fights in the city. At Pulakeshi Nagar where Congress’s Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy won in 2018 by over 90,000 votes – the highest margin in the state – the party has denied him the ticket. Akhanda has quit and joined BSP to recontest. The constituency saw communal riots three years ago and Murthy’s house was torched. Muslim community leaders had demanded that Murthy not be fielded this time. In the IT-dominated Mahadevapura, BJP has denied ticket to the controversial former minister Arvind Limbavali and has fielded his wife. In Govindaraj Nagar, minister V Somanna was denied ticket but he is being fielded from two seats, including one against Congress’ Siddaramaiah at Varuna.

Bengaluru may be a cosmopolitan city but electorally, it doesn’t behave differently from the rural areas when it comes to voting preferences. In 2018, 12 of the 28 MLAs who got elected were Vokkaligas (quite in line with the community’s dominant presence in the rest of southern Karnataka), there were four each from SCs, minorities and Brahmins, three OBCs and one Lingayat.

It is estimated that some 20 percent of voters are floating voters and don’t look at the caste factor but vote on the basis of the city’s infrastructure and civic issues. So proper developmental projects can also fetch votes. As regards the current polls, although BJP aims to win 20 of the 28 seats, no party appears to be in a position to increase its tally by more than one or two seats since most fights seem close.

BS Arun is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.