Polls to the 10 Assembly constituencies in Mysore district went off peacefully today with moderate to heavy turnout of voters.
Polling was low to moderate in the initial stages, but picked up momentum as the day progressed, and men and women were seen waiting in long queues to exercise their franchise, voters taking advantage of the extended one hour till 6 pm. The turnout was reportedly higher in the rural areas. The overall percentage is expected to be around 65.
Initial figures indicated a heavy turnout in K R Nagar, Hunsur, Varuna and a few other rural segments, while Krishnaraja and Chamaraja, where the elite and educated are more among the voters in Mysore city, showing around 50-55 per cent. Chamarajanagar too is said to have initially indicated over 70 per cent.
The turnout in the 2008 Assembly elections in the district was 66.24 per cent. However, elections were held for only 10 seats today as election in Periyapatna has been postponed following the death of the BJP candidate. In the background of this, today's turnout may be said somewhat higher than the last one.
Confusion prevailed among the voters as names of many were found missing or not traceable. Though the EC had made arrangements for distribution of voter identity slips, it had not reached a large number of voters. Bar on political parties not to distribute the slips, had added to the woes of many voters.
For the first time, the EC set up kiosks at booths. But the booth level officers were seen groping to find names of the voters. Some who had voted just a few months back in the Mysore City Corporation election had to return disappointed, the staff turning them away as their names were not 'found' in the voters' list.
An exasperated staff member was seen remarking showing the name of a person, "The names of the dead are repeated twice or thrice, but not of those who have EPIC cards."
In one such 'name-missing' instance, workers operating a political party booth came to a voter's rescue, traced his name from the list in a minute and handed over his identity slip with which the area resident could happily exercise his vote in the same booth where he had voted the last time, ending his 30-minute futile name-search exercise.
Polling was conducted amidst tight security with police and five paramilitary force personnel deployed at each polling booth. CCTV cameras were installed in the booths, besides police photographers were seen capturing images outside the polling booths. An elderly woman voter remarked: "So many restrictions are being announced, we are scared of coming to the booth (to vote)."
Some transgenders were among those who voted in Narasimharaja constituency where Chandini alias Aslam Pasha, a member of their group, is contesting from the Ambedkar Janata Party.
About 70 students from the local National Institute of Engineering (NIE) were deputed to some hyper-sensitive booths to record the polling process and be a part of the electoral system under the Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP).
The webcasting was the idea of Mysore Deputy Commissioner C Shikha who had called upon NIE to send some volunteers to help webcast the polling in remote areas, the first of its kind initiative in Karnataka. However, the students had to miss voting.
